7 weeks and 159 miles later ...

It has been ridiculously long since I last posted ... 7 weeks and 159 miles to be exact :) As usual in the Stevens household, life has been moving at a crazy pace! Since I last posted, we've taken trips to California & Washington to see family, and Jed has been on three or four work trips - one across the globe to Dubai & England. I've just started my last year of law school, and Miss Gracie is moving into the big kid classroom (3 -5 yrs old) at Montessori - she's growing up WAY too fast!

Our craziness has made training for this marathon pretty challenging, but truthfully, my runs have provided a lot of time for reflection and - believe it or not - relaxation in the last few weeks. I've reached two milestones in training in the last 7 weeks. The first came during week 4 on our trip to California - on August 4th, I ran 13 miles ... the official half-way, half-marathon mark! The run was a tough one full of hills, but I felt on top of the world after finishing. I always run with my cellphone, so of course, the minute I hit 13.1 miles, I was on the phone screaming and cheering about it with anyone who was lucky enough to answer my call that morning ;) To see the details of that run, check out http://connect.garmin.com/activity/10501319.

The second milestone came just this past week - I transitioned from the first phase of my marathon training (the endurance phase) to the second - the stamina phase. There are three phases to my training program - the endurance phase, the stamina phase and the taper phase. The endurance phase lasted 8 weeks, and the focus was mainly on my weekly long runs. The stamina phase is 6 weeks long, and the focus is split between my long runs and my speed workouts. The taper phase happens during the last two weeks before the marathon - at that point, I slow down majorly and try to get as much rest as I can before the big day!

During the stamina phase, I'll keep increasing the mileage on my long runs like I've been doing - until I hit 24 miles next month. And my speed workouts become more important during this phase - I'm switching from interval workouts (where I did short bursts of sprinting) to tempo runs, where I do longer sustained, fast-paced running. My pace for the tempo runs is supposed to be about 15 seconds faster than my marathon pace, so that on race day, my marathon pace will feel comfortable.

I did my first tempo run last Thursday and I was NOT mentally ready for it - it majorly kicked my butt! I was supposed to run 4 miles at an 8:45/mi pace ... I ran the full 4 miles, but not without stopping a few times. I was really discouraged, but after reading more about tempo training, I learned that on a scale from 1 - 10 (measuring your perceived rate of exertion), a good tempo run should feel like an 8 or above! As a novice runner, I had no clue that this run would be so hard, so it caught me off guard when I felt like I was going to keel over after 2 miles! This Thursday, I'm hoping that a little more mental preparation and focus will help me get through the 6 miles I'm supposed to run at an 8:45 pace :)

Even though I'm a little nervous about my pace/time goal, I have to say that after this past Sunday, I'm no longer nervous about being able to cross the finish line. My long run on Sunday was 19 miles, and I totally did it!! At the very end, the muscles in my legs were screaming at me, but my breathing was steady and I didn't feel exhausted - it was one heck of an adrenaline rush! And, I have to give a little shout out to Jed for what we've affectionately dubbed "support training." He's started running chunks of my long runs with me - hours of running can get kinda lonely and it is so much more enjoyable to have someone to chat with and cheer you on! So Jed has taken on that role, and this past Sunday, he had a bit of a milestone too ... he ran 13.1 miles of my 19 - his first half-marathon! Go Jed!! :) To see the details of Sunday's long run, check out http://connect.garmin.com/activity/12758904.

So, my apologies for not keeping up with this blog the way I'd hoped to - apparently, I'm not meant to be a blogger! :) I'll do my best to keep you all posted on my progress over the next few weeks. And of course, thank you, Thank You, THANK YOU SO MUCH for all your support! Because of YOU, $1350 has been raised for Team Continuum which means I'm almost half way to my $3000 goal!! :)