Love. Laugh. Live. Run.

I woke up Saturday morning and headed out for my 15-miler and nothing felt right. It was one of those days where I felt tired, achey, and out of breath. It wasn't going to happen so I got 5 miles in before returning home. I told myself I would try a good run on Sunday, but after a night of drinking and dancing with the girls, I wasn't even able to make it to church (Sorry God!).

Today was a beautiful day so I was thrilled to get out in the sun and soak up some Vitamin D. I'm not gonna lie, my biggest concern wasn't training, it was TANNING! Hey, I'm a multi-tasker! I sure did get my tan, but my training? Eh, not so much. My quads were BURNING! Apparently, I was really getting down the other night! It was a 7 mile run/jog and my poor quads really hate me.

I've been reading up on tips for the last month before a marathon and I think I might switch things up a bit. A lot of sources recommend focusing on intensity over mileage. Here are some of the reasons why [taken from Peak Performance]:

• Shorter runs let muscle fibers recover by gradually reducing their weekly dose of impact forces
• Research has demonstrated that intensity is a much more potent producer of fitness than mileage
• Intensity expands blood volume to a greater extent than slower running; the increased blood volume ensures both better fuel and oxygen delivery to muscles during the marathon and a superior supply of blood to the skin for cooling - and also reduces the risk of dehydration.
• Intensity enhances nervous-system coordination of the gait cycle, improving running economy and therefore lessening glycogen depletion during the marathon.
• Intense running makes marathon pace feel much easier by comparison (while slow running makes marathon speed feel comparatively harder)

I'm not a complete believer, but I would like to integrate some of the advice into my schedule. This will probably consists of doing more runs at marathon pace and Crossfit. I will definitely taper the last 2 weeks, but I can probably continue CF for 3 weeks.

I love experimenting with my running. I'm pretty certain that Pasadena will not be a PR race for me, but I've been trying a lot of new things this time around. The running list (pun intended) so far includes: switching shoe brands, training with a Garmin Forerunner, making my own training schedule, sports-drinks over water and GU, and intensity-focused last month. I'm hoping that I will learn a lot about training and I'll be ready to start improving my time based on my own experience. I'm going to analyze it, with science.

[Watch this clip for the inside joke.]