Preppy Running Update

This is just a quick update, on several things that are happening over here:


First of all, training for the half marathon is going great. I took almost two full weeks off out of sheer laziness (and because it was raining). But I'm back in the groove, and my times and fitness level are still improving. I'm saying that the two weeks I took off, were done intentionally to keep me injury free - OK really I was just lazy, but hey I can call it what I want :)

So I ran 10.6 Miles on Saturday holding to a pace of 10:40. The crazy thing about this run was that 
a) Even though it was 10.6 miles it was totally doable, about 8 miles in fatigued hit me, but I new I could finish the next 2.6 miles without a problem.
b) I ran it in my neighborhood, with all my crazy hills, and at mile 3 there was a hill that was literally half a mile long, a few weeks ago I wouldn't have made it up it, but last week I made it up it... and still did so in a reasonable time!
Originally my goal pace for the half marathon was somewhere between 10 and 11 min per mile. Now I'm thinking of shooting for something more specific, like maybe a 10:30, or 10:25 min per mile pace. I don't have any time to run a 5K or 10K before the half marathon to try to better figure out what my goal pace should be, does anyone have a suggestion of the best way for me to set a goal pace?

Second running update, I've been trying to do all of my runs as tempo runs, aiming to do the first 1/3 15-20 seconds slower than goal pace, the 2nd 1/3 no more than 10 seconds slower than goal pace, and the last 1/3 at or below goal pace. It's hard to do this every run, b/c it means negative splits every run, but it is really helping me to get a feel for how fast I'm moving, and it's giving me lots to focus on even when running is hard. However yesterday, I just wanted to run without worrying about pace. I ran 4 Miles at a 9:08 Pace, my fastest one yet, and even better, Mile 1 was at an 8:56 and Mile 4 was at an 8:52. Now I realize that those paces aren't really fast, and I certainly won't be winning any awards. But considering when I started training for my half in January I was closer to a 12 min per mile pace, this is a huge improvement!


And finally because training for the half is going so well, I'm 90% positive I'm going to enter the San Francisco Marathon in July. The marathon will be held the weekend after our big move to the Bay Area, and a week before medical school starts. I've always wanted to run a marathon, and I think running one right before school starts will give me a huge confidence boost. It'll be challenging to do the move and the run all around the same time, but the two weeks before a marathon you're supposed to taper your mileage anyway, so I think it will work out nicely. And how awesome will it be to run across the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge, and past all of the major SF site seeing locations? 

Last update, it was 80 in Austin yesterday! Woo-hoo I think spring is finally here, it's supposed to be in the mid 70's today :)