Thursday morning I woke up and had a little bit different run on the schedule. Well, actually it wasn’t on the schedule. I am not running my marathon until early December, so I am having to add a few training weeks into my program.

Bright and early I was out of bed!

Instead of taking out my tempo run for an extra mile this week, I decided to take the pace up a bit and the milage back.

I started with a 1.5 mile warm up slow and easy. I was so thankful for a cool morning! I then started into my workout. My husband helped me plan out the following run:

2 miles at marathon pace
2 miles at half marathon pace
1 mile at marathon pace
1 mile at half marathon pace
1 mile at marathon pace

My marathon pace for this workout was 8:00 and my half marathon pace was a 7:40.

In total, it was 7 miles in just under 56 minutes. I actually felt really strong this entire run. My legs, which had been extremely tired on Wednesday morning, felt fresh and new! It was one of those runs that left me feeling strong!

There is a reason I sped this workout up a little bit. I am excited to let you all know that this weekend I am going to be racing the Danville Half Marathon!

I’ve been toying with the idea of throwing in a race prior to my marathon, and after realizing I had to change my marathon I thought it would be perfect. Originally I was going to run the Greensboro, NC marathon in just a few weeks. However, Wes learned that he would have to be out of town that month for his pediatric rotation and really wanted to be there for my race.

We discussed it and right now are aiming for another marathon at the beginning of December once he is back. Once it is finalized I will let you all know when and where!

This weekend however, I am focused on racing. It has been over a year since my last race. I haven’t raced since prior to my injury and that makes me nervous. I think racing and having practice at racing is so important. That is the main reason I am choosing to do this.

I want to focus on learning how to race correctly and challenging myself. I think this will also be a great chance for me to see where I am in my training.

I have a couple goals for the race, but I will wait until I am finished to share them. Just like with my marathon I have set an A, B and C goal in hopes of running the best race that I can. I want to have fun, challenge myself and go out there and see what I’m capable of!

I am so excited to race again. It really seems like forever since i’ve been out there on the starting line. So here I go. I am ready and excited to see how I can do. I’ve been itching to race and I think this is a great point in my training to do it.

Anyone else racing this weekend?

Do you ever plan races within your training to track your progress?