Week 15

That’s the only way I know
Don’t stop till everything’s gone
Straight ahead never turn round
Don’t back up, don’t back down
Full throttle wide open
You get tired, you don’t show it
Dig a little deeper when you think you can’t dig no more
That’s the only way I know 

Ben Hayslip and David Lee Murphy (performed by Jason Aldean)*

Fitness-wise, I think I turned a corner about a month ago. That's the easy part. All you gotta do is do your workouts and the fitness comes. I'm proud to say that I've been pretty good about my workouts so far, I haven't skipped one or bailed early on one yet (I probably have the KoB to thank for that). (There's still a few weeks to go. Ahem).

I've known from day one that the real challenge for me and this marathon is about 95% mental. To get to that start line on February 17th and believe that I can achieve my goal, that's the hard part. But, I'm starting to turn the corner there, too. I've still got a few weeks to build confidence, but I'm headed in the right direction (cue me knocking on every available wood surface right now).

My schedule had this awesome little tidbit from my coach:

So. Nine weeks...Which really means about 7 more weeks of work and 10-12 days of tapering. These will be the hardest weeks.

So, that's exciting. I'm strangely looking forward to the grind of these last few weeks. BRING IT.

What I was not excited about seeing on the schedule: 800s.

WHAT?

The meat of the week:

Fast: 8x800s 

Long: 17 miles keeping an eye on the pace.

Total: 65ish

Ugh. I HATE 800s. But, luckily, these turned out to be pretty fun. The track was pretty windy, but I had the KoB there to keep me from pansying out and we pretty much nailed them. BOOM, YASSO. TAKE THAT.

The long run was a Run Bitches event. Coach, Cheryl, Liz and I had a great time running as apart of a big group that got together to raise money for the families of Sandy Hook. Despite the boring-as-shit course, we chit-chatted and pushed each other to a pretty decent pace. I felt pretty good the whole time and was thrilled to finally get the exact mileage that was on the schedule for my long run. 

My plan all week was to get EXACTLY 65 miles, but Sunday's run did not go as well as planned and I ended up with 63. I'm a wee bit disappointed, but I'll take it. I'm looking forward to a week in my future where there is a 7 as the first number. 

 *Yes, I quoted a Jason Aldean song. We've gotten to that point of training where OMG EVERYTHING IS ABOUT MY TRAINING. Including cheesy country songs. No shame.