Runner's Club at the YMCA

We run every Friday morning together. It's a great time to talk about times, aches and pains, races etc. Jim, my trainer, has had to miss the last couple of weeks due to other commitments so Mike has been running with us instead. Mike is a speedy guy....LOL...at first he was KILLING me because he keeps a steady 8 minute mile and I'm SUPPOSED to be training on a MUCH slower pace for the marathon training. But being the competitive woman I am, I try to keep up. This is so wrong of me on so many levels. It proves I have no self control. Sighhhhhh....yeah, so anyway...Maria decided to join us this morning too. She's even faster than Mike. She can run so fast she's like a blurr. I knew all week I was running with these two maniacs. (I'm saying maniacs in a loving way) Here's the conversation I had with myself on the ride over to the gym.....

SELF: Ok, now you know those two are fast.

KIM: Yes, yes I know!

SELF: This is your chance to stay true to your pace time.

KIM: Yeah, but how about we TRY to keep up and see what happens??

SELF: Don't be ridiculous. PRACTICE YOUR PACE TIMES!

KIM: Jim won't even know, he has a training. (snicker, snicker)

SELF: PFFFTTTT....you know I'll tell, I have a big mouth. Besides, if you can't control yourself NOW, you won't in the marathon either. Then you'll fizzle out in the 5th mile.

KIM: I hate talking to myself, you drive me crazy. (turns up the radio)

So I get to the gym and stretch out. I kept telling Mike and Maria I was going to do my pacing. I told them not to wait for me. I emphasized how slow I was going to go. What a joker I am. I ran right beside them. SIGH, no self control.

By the time we got 1/2 way there I could feel my body asking me ever so politely why we were not doing our pacing. I ignored myself. I'm really good at that. I told Mike and Maria I was only doing 2 miles at this pace and they decided to stay with me. On the run back I did do the power walks. I had to, my lower left leg muscle was killing me. I pulled it on my 14.4 mile run last Saturday. Oh, did I mention I ran 14.4 miles last Saturday????? (HA!!!, still feeling proud) Also, I saw Jim on his way past us....LOL. I wasn't too far behind Maria so I'm sure he knew I wasn't doing my training. The sweet man never said a word...LOL. I think he knows by now I'll tell him anyway.

By this time Mike had pulled up ahead of me. Just for kicks I decided to sprint past him. OH THE SHEER SATISFACTION of passing Mike!!!! Hahahaha!!! I guess I should confess one thing....Mike had sprinted in the beginning to catch up to us, we started at the back of the gym, he started in the front. So in his defense he did his sprint earlier, which makes it harder. Maria used this time for the warm down, so in reality (my own of course) I also sprinted past MARIA! YEAH BABY!!!!!!! This is why I love the Friday morning runs (OK, that's sounds so gross....) I love these Friday morning practices. Yeah, that sounds better, but I'll leave in the weird sounding remark for your reading enjoyment. I love it because it's fun. These people are so nice. I have been enjoying every minute of training for this marathon.

Mike is going to come by my house in the morning and run 5-7 miles with me, depending on my leg muscle. I'm seriously going to do my pace training, I swear. I have a pace band for the marathon that should get me finishing the marathon in 4:59 (thanks Joe) I'm going to use it in tomorrows run.

I'm going to promise to run my pace training times tomorrow with Mike. There. I put it in print. Now I have to do it. I haven't broken a promise to my blog friends yet, have I? No, I haven't.

Thanks for being here guys. I'll be back!!!