Cherry Blossom 10-Miler Race Round-Up

It's April, which means that it's seriously crunch time for the Cox Sports Marathon.  The reality is this: I have two weeks of training before the taper begins, and that's it.  I'm finding that I oscillate between being really stressed out and not worrying about this reality.  I think I had the crazy idea going into training  that I would be table to train hard enough to take another significant chunk off of my marathon time.  Sure, it would be great (and I still wonder if I'll be able to do that), but I have also thought about setting a more realistic goal for this race -- say, shaving 15 minutes off of my marathon PR. I have the base to finish a marathon, and - as Stef has pointed out - racing has its benefits to marathon training.

Yesterday, I ran my second Cherry Blossom 10-Miler. I'll say up front that I did not set a PR for my 10-Mile time (in fact, I was seconds slower); however, I was exactly three minutes faster compared to my 2011 Cherry Blossom 10-mile time.  Awesome!

There honestly isn't much to report from the race itself. The experience was very similar to last year's race, though it was a little harder to find good running space for most of the race and most of the blossoms had already lost their beautiful pink color so there wasn't much to look at on the course.  I am proud that I ran consistent splits during this run.

Split 7 and Split 8 should be combined.  Split 11 shows me hitting my watch at the race's ninth mile marker so I could keep track of my pace from the race's ninth mile marker to the finish line. It's always amazing how much I had by taking the longest possible route around turns.

I'm happy with my time, and I'm looking forward to moving onto the second week of the Cox Marathon Crunch.

Week 2

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: 3 miles

Wednesday: 5 miles

Thursday: 3 miles

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 18 miles

Sunday: X-Training/Strength Training