Shoot for the Moon

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I promised my husband no more marathons unless I could find a way to do it without disappearing from the family. If I run the Baystate Marathon, I'll get one of the first Mill Cities Doubles jackets. 

Enter in the book Run Less Run Faster* from Runner’s World. As I read through it I realized, this plan could work. I’m already trained up for a marathon, and mostly recovered. I could do this.

Track Workout last week.

If you recall the weekend before I ran my marathon, I had an unexpected pace increase (a huge one!) and now I’m a few weeks post marathon, the speed is still there, or mostly there.

Run Less Run Faster has a bunch of tables to predict times and set goals. When I look at my fastest 5k time, I am looking at a marathon prediction of 5 hours! That seems insane to me. My first marathon was 6 hours and 5 mins. I was aiming for less than 6 hours and I’ve been informed that missing it by 5 minutes with the temperatures that day was amazing.

When I break down my goal paces, I’ll be looking at 11:27 for the actual marathon, around 12:27 for long runs and as fast as 10:12 for week day training. A part of me thinks trying for it is insane, but another part of me think, no I can do it. I can run fast. The only thing that will stop me is me. 

If I train for 5 hours, and end up with 5 hr and 30 mins, I'll still be super proud of that accomplishment. 

I wasn't trying for any speed goals with Hampton Half and ended up with a huge PR.

Do I shoot the moon and go for a 5 hour marathon?

Flat Johanna for Sunday's Race. 

This weekend I turn Forty One, to celebrate I'm running a 5k with my local She Runs This Town chapter. One of the women has offered to pace me and help push me to a sub 30 minute 5k!! It's going to be hard, but I know I can absolutely do it.  

Since it's my birthday Saturday, if you were thinking of a gift, here is my amazon wish list for running items.