training log blog

So I am taking a stab at the whole blogging about my experiences as a new runner. I probably should have started chronicling this whole experience a little sooner, but this weekend was really pretty ridiculous and seems like a good place to start. I'm training for a marathon. The AT&T marathon in feb. I didn't really start running until this past June. I trained for the Human Race 10k all summer. Everyone else was off swimming and doing fun tris, and I was running. I achieved the goal I set for myself at the Human Race and wanted to keep running. I noticed that the marathon training groups had started, so I thought I might take a stab at it. I was already at their weekly ramp up distances.
Fast forward to this weekend. I've been running my weekly long run religiously on Saturday mornings, sometimes with a group, sometimes not. I was going to run with the Rogue group because their run was open to the public this week. I was supposed to run 9 miles, but when I got there they had 10, 12 and 14 mile options, which was wierd because I was expecting a 7 and 10 mile option. Either way, I was running the 10, a big step up from the 8 of my long run the week before.
The run was pretty rad. It was a nice cool morning. I had good tunes. I was running alone, but clicking along like a metronome, meeting each mile marker in exceedingly good time. I zippped up and down the hills on Exposition with some fast guys and was really enjoying myself. It was the run of a lifetime. Then I got to the hike and bike trail, and I fell in to a black hole. According to my splits I was running like 14+ min miles. I really suck at calculating distance on the trail. I hate running on the damn trail, and I am pretty convinced, had I stayed on lake austin and run straight across 5th street, I would have finished well ahead of my goal time. Sadly, it took me 45 min to lumber across the trail to the starting point. I missed the congress avenue bridge and had to run back around. It was really amazing to see how my body just started to say NO! No mas. I am done. Like when I take Buttercup on a run and she pulls to the side and tries to lay down. I was feeling pretty down and out about the whole thing, until I realized even with my crummy splits on the last 2 miles, I had been going all-out with no breaks, for longer than it took me to complete my last tri. No transition time, no time for coasting downhill on the bike... after looking at in that light, I felt a lot better about my effort, and how much it took out of me. I really wouldn't have minded a day just to lounge and recover, but some dark masochistic side of me had signed up for a yoga workshop at 3:30. Check the next blog for my report on THAT.