Keeping it up

I'm almost afraid to say this, but things are still looking good. These last few runs I've done have been really consistant. I seem to have my pace per mile down to about 15:10 to 15:15 which is a big improvement from when I started a few months ago. Before I could barely keep it under 16 mins/mile. If I continue to get stronger & lose more weight (I think I've dropped about 8-10 lbs now), I'm hoping I can get my time down to about 14:30. That would be fantastic for me.

As much as I absolutely DESPISE the heat, it seems to kinda be working for me. Maybe all that heat is keeping my muscles looser. Who knows? It could be a whole different story when it's late August/early September & I'm running double-digit miles in 100º temps. But at least I'm pretty much guaranteed temps that are at least 20 degrees cooler in San Francisco on race day.

Speaking of San Fran... I must say that I'm really glad Coach Dan is making us do so many hills. That's the one thing that was lacking in my previous training periods & it really hurt me (particularly in San Diego last year). Dan has us doing the hills at Shepherd &/or multiple runs of the 5 story parking garage in all of our long runs, plus every other Tuesday night we do a 3 mile run plus at least 3 runs of the parking garage. (I'm sure the # of times we do the garage will increase as the season progresses. We started out @ 1 & are up to 3 now.) I'm actually surprising myself at how well I'm taking the hills. Since I can't really run down them (too much jarring on the ole spine) I'm really tackling them going up, giving it all I've got. I may be slow going up them now, but I have no doubt I'll get faster. I already have a little bit so far. I still have 4 months left to get even better.

I'm kinda surprising myself at how optimistic I've been about this training season. Maybe I'm just taking it more seriously this time around, what with Meredith & Emily having cancer now. Sadly, my best friend's dad lost his 3 week battle with cancer & died this past Saturday. I thought of him on that last pass on the parking garage run on Tuesday night when I came *this close* to stopping. I said to myself "NO! You can't stop! Think of Kelly & all she's going through now that her dad is gone. Do it for them!!" It really helped. I've got to keep going. It's all I can do.

*side note*

I thought it was kind of ironic that at the very moment Kelly's dad died of cancer, I was at Biba's having breakfast with cancer survivor & fellow marathoner, Jonathan. I guess in a way it all comes full circle, eh?