Alright.  I’ve started Week 6 of my marathon training.  Yesterday, when I thought about this I got a little down.  I’d forgotten I’m on an 18 week program and not a 16 week..  So, the race is a full 12 weeks away.  That’s mostly a good thing because I have longer to prepare for it, but I suddenly had to wait two more weeks.  Oh, well.  I am thinking about this way more than I should.  Have I mentioned that I tend to be a little obsessive??

I ran my 12 mile run last weekend and it went okay.  My goal is to run the marathon at a 13 minute per mile pace and that’s pretty much what my pace was on Saturday.  I’m taking a short walk break at each 1-1/2 mile to get used to the spacing of the water/aid stations at the marathon.  I also took along the Accel Gel and wore my fancy socks.

Accel Gel:  I got four different flavors and decided to try Key Lime first.  Based on a discussion with the lady at Luke’s Locker, I squeezed one Accel into a Gu Tube and filled it the rest of the way with water.  The Accel is supposed to take about 15 minutes to get into your system so I started using it 15 minutes before I thought I’d start to struggle – which for me was at 6 miles.  It was okay.  I had already been struggling before 6 miles, so maybe I should have taken it sooner.  We ran a route that seemed to be straight uphill for 4 miles.  U.G.H…  I can’t catch a break!  Uphill wears me down and downhill still hurts my knee a little bit.  …sigh  I sipped from the Accel three different times.  Should I have finished it off in one drink or maybe two? 

I felt strongish all of the way to the end.  I still got a little confused.  I was trying to figure out how many miles I’d run this week and couldn’t do the simple math involved in adding 5, 4, 6 and 3.  Later in the day, I felt pretty good.  I was a little sore and stiff after sitting for a while, but not bad.  I was able to walk a mile and a half to and from a local restaurant on Saturday night with no trouble.

I think this weekend I will squeeze two packs into the bottle and will start drinking it at 6 miles.  I’m planning to run 13 miles this weekend so I’ll have some at 6 miles and then again at 9 miles.

Fancy Socks:  Not worth $11.  I don’t think I could really tell much difference between them and my regular ‘athletic socks’.  I can’t imagine that I will be buying more.  They are cute, though.  As long as my socks ‘wick’ moisture, I think I’ll be fine.

I am, however, thinking about getting inserts for my shoes.  I have started to get a little pain in my arch.  It’s not bad – not nearly bad, just enough to make me wonder what’s going on.  I’ll do some research on the internet first, of course!  What in the world did we do before the internet??  😉

I also need to figure out what is going on with my running capris.  On my 12 mile run and again today, I have some REALLY uncomfortable rubbing at the top of my thigh at the seam of my pants.  I’ve never had this kind of problem before so I’m kind of confused about what is causing it.  I meant to use some Body Glide before my run this morning but I forgot.  Not good.  My skin is rubbed pretty raw!  YUCK. 

So – this week:

I ran 4 ‘easy’ miles yesterday and struggled until I got to about 3 miles.  What the heck??  I struggled to get out of the house.  I was tired, my knees (YES, BOTH OF THEM) were achy, I was out of breath and moving like a tortoise.  I seriously almost turned around and went back home.  I was glad (after I got finished) that I went, though – as usual. 

This morning, I ran 6 miles on the treadmill at marathon pace – 12:30 per mile.  That’s faster than I think I will run the marathon, but for some reason, I feel like I need to run a little faster on the treadmill.  Don’t know why.

Here we go again!  I need to be somewhere Saturday morning really early, so I am going to try this again.  Tomorrow, I am going to try to gut out TWO runs.  I want to do 4 ‘pace’ miles (doing intervals) in the morning and then late afternoon, do a 5 mile ‘easy’ run.  I’ll take Thursday off and run 13 miles on Friday instead of Saturday.  I’ll take Saturday off and walk or something on Sunday just so I don’t get to lazy.

We’ll see if it works.  At some point, I need to just make running the TOP priority and work everything else around it.  I feel like that point is coming soon.

Total Miles for Week 5:  30

Total MIles scheduled for Week 6:  32

Winning!