I ran today for the first time in a week. The cold knocked me down pretty hard over the weekend, and I guess I have been reluctant to get out and run. But this morning I cranked out a 30-minute run up our hill and around the park, despite the uncomfortable tightness in my chest that I feel when I run with a cold. But it was totally worth it.
I am always amazed at how great running makes me feel. Running days I feel more energetic and positive all day. Those endorphins are reason enough to run.
I know that training for the marathon helped me make running and exercise in general a priority, so today I began looking at the two fall marathons in our area – Long Beach and Malibu. If I start training now I will have ample time to train strong and slow, like you are suppose to.
But this time I have a new goal.
I don’t want to just survive. I want to improve my time.
I found myself looking at Boston Marathon qualifying times, and after doing the math, decided that even if I wait another two years until I cross into a slower qualifying category, I will probably never be able to pull it off.
For a 35-year-old woman the qualifying time is 3 hours 45 minutes -- 51 minutes faster than I ran last month at the LA Marathon. I would have to run 2 minutes faster every mile to qualify for Boston. It’s probably not going to ever happen, but I’d at least like to see if I could do better than last time.
One of my blogging buddies writes about how most people, regardless of age, peak in their running between 5 to 10 miles after they start.
ReplyDeleteHere's his post on it: http://drtrunning.blogspot.com/2009/06/running-time-goals.html
There's probably more details on that theory elsewhere. Regardless, I know you'll be able to run even faster next time.
Oops -- I meant, 5 to 10 years, clearly!
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