To say I am excited is an understand, I am pumped to actually be registered for a real road race this spring. April 25th I will be racing in the Atlantic City April Fools Half Marathon. It wasn’t my first choice but it is a good plan B for sure.

With only 8 or so weeks until race day I would normally be stressing that I am behind with my training, but instead I feel that my base is as strong as it has ever been and now it is time to just fine tune my training. This was reinforced yesterday when I did my first workout that was tailored to my upcoming race. It was 3 x 10 minutes with 2 minutes easy. The intended pace was supposed to be around 6:20 which is where I think marathon pace is right now, so a hard pace but sustainable. To my pleasant surprise I probably averaged about 6:07 and felt very comfortable.

My actual pace versus my expected pace is something to take note of. It is important to have an idea of the paces you want to hit during a workout but it is equally important to understand how you should feel at the prescribed pace and find a happy medium between the two. Sometimes this will mean running faster and sometimes slower than what is written down when the workout is drawn up. If I had finished the workout described above but emptied the tank it would not have been a good workout because the goal was to run at a hard but sustainable pace, not run at a pace that I could barely hold for ten minutes.

I am looking forward to sharing my progress as I get closer to race day.