Big stuff first. This September I moved out to Stanford in northern California to start a masters program in mechanical engineering, and have officially finished my first quarter. I met an awesome guy on the internet and he now takes up more time than any one of my classes, but I don't mind (he's a part-time Stanford student while he works at Sun, and graduated last June too from Harvey Mudd, totally not sketchy at all). I also completed the Norcal Warrior Dash on October 31 with just about no training, 3.5 miles or so in 35:something or other, and finished in about the top 40% of everyone and way better than that for women only. Here's a picture of me jumping over flames for good measure:
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| Also shamelessly stolen from the professional photography website that wants to charge $20 for the version without the watermark |
Apparently it's got great views, but it will be a difficult double loop on a trail, so training on hills will happen. Luckily there's the dish, a very hilly 3.5 mile loop, about 1.2 miles away from my door, for when the runs get a bit longer.
Anyway, my boy is from Hawaii, which is where I am now and where I got to kick off week 1 of marathon training. This week I did 3-4-3-5 according to the plan, which really ended up being 3.7 - 4.3 - 2.6 - 5.3 but that's close enough. This coming week, the plan is 3-4-3-6. As long as I stay out of the major heat from 10-2, I'm okay. Made that mistake a few times this past week, though. Now I only have 15 more weeks to go, or 60 more runs including the marathon itself. I'll try to update at least once a week to give any thoughts I had on how the week went, or more if I have something to say. It looks like the plan will generally be:
M: short
T: slightly longer
W: rest
R: short
F: rest
Sat: loooong
Sun: rest
Rinse, and repeat. (The plan advises resting the day before and the day after the long run, so T/W can be switched, and the longest run is 18 miles.) Since I come back from Hawaii this weekend and head to New York the next day, the long run will probably have to happen on Friday this week. We'll see how it goes. Also need to gear up for the shock of east coast winter after all my balmy 70-80 F runs. Maybe I'll wish for it if I sleep in too much though, and get caught in that heat. Hmm.
