Week 3 of my year-long marathon training to knock an hour off my average marathon time (which my pal, Brandon Nobach has calculated as 5:30:49)!

Before I get to what my training looked like this week, let me just say a word about the value of support and accountability. Last Saturday I was scheduled to run 8 miles for my long run, but when I woke up in the morning I could already hear the rain pounding on my roof. And at 9am, it was still coming down–hard. I knew I had to run, because I’d already blogged about it, already said I WOULD do 8 miles (accountability), but every part of me did not want to venture outside into the muck. At some point, mid-morning, I posted this on Facebook: “How long should I wait for the rain to abate before just going out for my run? Is there a window in the near future? What say you weather prognosticators?”

I received 33 comments, most of them to the effect of Molly’s encouragement to, “Go for it Cami! It wasn’t too bad out there and not super cold!! Get it done, then you can really enjoy the rest of your day. I don’t like having that monkey on my back all day.” Several people, in fact, said that they had already gotten out for their runs. How could I stay inside with everyone shouting, “Go run!” and setting such a good example for me? And so I did!

You cannot measure the value of 1.) telling a whole bunch of people who may ask you about your progress what you intend to do and 2.) asking for support when you’re wavering about whether or not to proceed with your stated goals. Thanks all!

This week’s training schedule was:

Sunday: Day off.

Monday: Speed work. Warm up and then 25 minutes of intervals–1 minute hard, one minute easy–at the track.

Tuesday: Off.

Wednesday: Pace work. After 2.5 miles of slow warm up, I ran 4 one-mile repeats with one minute of rest between each. The goal was to hit 9:30 for each mile. Mile 1 was 9:34; mile 2 was 9:46; mile 3 was 9:46; and mile 4 was 9:54. Obviously I didn’t reach my time goal, so I plan to repeat this workout next Wednesday to see if I can hit it then. This week I felt heavy (although my actual weight is down a little bit). In fact, I wouldn’t have even finished the last mile of this workout if Carol Frazey hadn’t run it with me, pushing me to complete it and to relax into my pace. I’m not sure why it was so hard, but there’s always another chance!

Thursday: Two slow miles with Bill and Fuji.

Friday: Three slow miles.

Saturday: Long run. 10 miles.

Hope your training is going well this week, friends. I’ve loved your comments telling me what you’re up to and how you’re progressing. Extra cheers for those of you training for the first time and for those of you who are in the beginning stages of your running life (Ashley Ostman comes to mind–remind me to brag on my cousin sometime). Until next week!