Focus

Well, yesterday I ran the second of the three races for the distance series (20K, 25K, and 30K). You may remember that the last race I ran too fast for marathon prep. Yesterday I did so much better! I hooked up with a great group and we all settled in at an 8 minute pace. It really makes all the difference in the world to have people around me talking so that I am distracted. We were able to keep each other honest with pace and goals. I ran much smarter. Everytime we started to increase pace, one of us would remind us to relax and slow down again. It is so easy to get caught up in the race mentality and push too hard. The pace was quite comfortable and that is huge since this is what I want to hold for the marathon.

I am glad the race went well for me because this week was quite tough. I got my miles done, but my head was not in the game. This happened the last time I trained for distance. The mileage gets high and it becomes consuming and boring. I only have about 4 weeks of hard running before I taper; so I just need to keep my focus.