I Am Not Alone :)

It's funny how I seem to have these struggles througout training: my occasional fear of running, battling heat and humidity, weight gain, injury, etc ... and while each one of my problems seems to be a bit bizzare to me, I find that I have many partners in my misery. My pace group struggles with the same problems, and I find fellow bloggers discussing the same issues - often more clearly and eloquently than I!

Maggie Mae has been battling the Philadelphia heat and humidity - so much so that the recently suggested that "I think I would rather be running on a treadmill". I myself have been in this position several times - and have hit the treadmill twice this week :(

Amanda, in Overland Park KS has to battle 100 degree heat indexes! She also appears to have a weakness for cookies, which is something that I myself struggle with. In fact, I had one after lunch today ;)

While another persons struggles do not make me happy - its great to know I am not alone. In addition, while following anothers battles I can often get input and advice on how to address the same hurdles myself! My friends, fellow runners, and other bloggers have helped me overcome tons of hurdles since I started training - and more importantly, continually provide me the support and inspiration I need to keep on with this battle!

Training Log
Time:  31:36 time  Distance:3 miles   Pace:  10:32 min/mi
Last night at training one of our coaches mentioned that running the same pace for all runs (short, long, race...) is not a good thing. OOPS. I generally run a similar pace for everything. I talked to him post-workout and asked why it was so bad, and what should I do. He said that we need to do speed/interval workouts, and various paces, in order to create the endurance and ability to finish the distance runs. Training at the same pace may not give us the ability to finish a long run because we might not have built up the needed energy/ability to do those last few miles. One of thie things that he suggests helps is training like we did last night - where we run slower and faster paces. So today I did the same on the treadmill. I did a pace slower than my marathon (10:45) one at the same (10:30) and one faster (10:20). Averaged out it equaled my usual pace (about 10:30) but I got in three different speeds. Hopefully this should eventually enable me to run the marathon in negative splits (2nd half faster than 1st).