18 miles and counting

my route for today....http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3182408

So I haven't blogged about training like I have wanted to. Today was my 18 mile run. Amber runs hers tomorrow. I will say that this training is better than my first marathon training mostly because I know that I "can" do it.

I wish that I had the time and energy to share all of my analogies from my run today. (I had 3 hours to think). But I want to update on how the training is going as a whole since I haven't been keeping track.

This time around training is better. I love running (this hasn't changed), but my new thing is being into nutrition. I want to eat right so that my body has the right fuel to run better. I'm waiting for a new book to come in that is about the runners's body. I can't wait! So I have learned to eat whole wheat stuff and try to cut out sugar. I love and am addicted to sugar so I have just cut back.

I have been able to keep better on the schedule this time than my first time. I remember I usually had to take 2 days off after every long run. Well After I ran 14 miles (on a Sat.) I was able to run for 60 minutes a day later on Monday. AND I almost ran 7 miles in that 60 minutes. That's a HUGE improvement for me. I've never been one for speed, but I've been working on it and I'm getting better.

That's the other thing that is different about this training. I have been able to work on speed some. Before I just would get out and run, but this time I have pushed myself more and done what are called "tempo runs." You run at a fast pace for 5 minutes then walk for 2 minutes. Then a couple weeks later you run at a fast pace for 10 minutes and walk for 1 minute. Then a couple of weeks later you run at a fast pace for 20 minutes. This really helped me to get faster. Another thing that has helped my speed is the heat. Let me clarify that during the heat I am SLOW. However running in the heat helps my pace to be faster when it's not so hot. That morning that a ran almost 7 miles in the 60 minutes...well it was really cool out (well for Alabama anyway) and I was able to run that fast cause there was NO heat.

I hate that I haven't kept this up to date during the training. I always have SO many analogies that come from my runs. For some though they will be glad that I don't post as many.

SO as far as today goes. I ran about 18.5 miles in about 3 hours and burned over 1700 calories. I have had some encounters with some dogs along the way in my training. (you can read the former post about my dog experience...it's pretty hilarious) But anyway I took pepper spray with me today to ward off the scary dogs.

At about mile 6 or 7 my calf muscles started to lock up on me and act like they didn't want to work, but I told them (yes I talk to my muscles) that they were gonna have to cut that out cause we had a long way to go. So I kept running through the pain. At about mile 8 I ran past my Grandmother's house and then I saw Ms. Jeanette and Ann. They encouraged me just seeing them.
Thus far I had not had any encounters with dogs. You must know that I’m terrified of dogs. Fear overcomes me and I can’t function. From reading the next post you can see that the fear just gets me. Well today before my run I was reading scriptures about fear and this one really stuck with me “For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” As I mentioned in my post about the fear of dogs, fear is something that takes over us where we can’t think rationally or function normally. This scripture that says we have a sound mind took on a new meaning today. I was quoting scripture today to help me not be afraid of the dogs. (I also had pepper spray). I thought of how we have a sound mind because we are able to function normally.

I also thought about how with the dogs I’m not afraid of the one that I know or have run by their house enough to know how to handle them. The ones I’m afraid of are the unknown dogs. But I’m also afraid of the ones that have run after me and scared me, that they might come again. As I was running I was thinking ok…how will I handle that little black dog if he comes running at me again. I was thinking about how we sometimes focus SO much on the problem or the fear and how we’re going to handle when instead we should be focused on God and asking him to give us what we need to face the fears. I was doing that with the dogs on my route. The ones that scared me before haven’t scared me again. We never know what’s going to come our way we have to be focused on the source of strength rather than the problems.

The last 2 miles was the hardest, but I just thought of the marathon and how the last 6 miles is painful every step of the way. My muscles were hurting most of the run today and it made me start thinking about strength and our perspective on strength. Many times we ask God to be our strength and to give us strength. Many times when I ask for strength, I’m envisioning a supernatural immediate power surge of strength. However when I was running today I thought of how the pain that I was experiencing was strength. I was getting strength through this pain. The pain that I was going through will help me on race day to endure. I’ve thought of this before how building strength takes time and we have to just work at it, but it came to me in a new light today.

Enough rambling about running for today. Time to go eat!