Dallas Marathon Training: Week 2 Complete

Last week's plan and actual:

Sun 7/22: 30 min cross train Yoga for Runners podcast, 25 min
Mon 7/23: 30 min recovery run 3.12 mi, 32 min + upper body strength training
Tues 7/24: DRC training group, 50 min base/easy 4.89 mi, 53 min
Wed 7/25: 30 min recovery run Rest
Thurs: 7/26: 50 min base/easy run 3.28 mi, 34 min
Fri 7/27: Rest Detox yoga, 22 min
Sat 7/28: DRC training group, 8 mi long 8.02, 1:27

These Tuesday night runs are going to be hard for me in the heat of the summer. I brought one of my small water bottles and had to refill at least twice. I'm thinking about getting a handheld bottle since I hate wearing the fuel belt. The rest of the runs I did in the early morning.

Saturday, our long run went great! I had ordered a new pair of Glycerin 9's on liquidation and was so excited to take them out for a spin. I noticed the laces didn't seem as long as I was tying them and thought it was odd. They felt good during my run, just a little tight even though I had room in the toe box. When I got home, I took them off, looked at the label on the tongue and realized they were a narrow. Fail! Back they go.

This week's plan is almost the same as last week's, just a few tweaks for scheduling reasons.

Sun 7/29: Rest
Mon 7/30: 30 min recovery run (3 mi)
Tues 7/31: DRC training group, 50 min base/easy
Wed 8/1: 30 min cross training (yoga)
Thurs: 8/2: 50 min base/easy run (5 mi)
Fri 8/3: 30 min recovery run (3 mi)
Sat 8/4: DRC training group, 8 mi long

Saturday's run should be interesting, we will do a relay race in three-person teams. Brandon, Lauren and I are Three's Company and we even have shirts! We will run as a group to the race start, run the race and then run a few more miles to round it out to about 8 miles.

Dallas Marathon Training: Week 1 Complete!

So I decided to bite the bullet and train for the 2012 Dallas Marathon (the race formerly known as the White Rock Marathon). Three other friends have signed up as well and we are doing the Dallas Run Club training program, so it's great to have a group to train with as well as people I already know in the group.

This past Tuesday, we had our orientation meeting where we learned what pace group we would be in and met our pace leaders. In order to determine our group, the DRC used past race times (which we submitted when we signed up online) plus the results from the DRC Independence Day 10K. The 10K was my slowest 10K to date because of the heat, so I was surprised to learn that they wanted to put me in the 4:00 pace group. That seems awfully ambitious to me! My friend Brandon finished the same race faster than I did and was placed in the 4:20 pace group. He thought that would be too slow so we decided to split the difference and both run with the 4:10 group.

Saturday morning, I met my running buddies Brandon and Laigha bright (well, dark) and early so we could carpool to White Rock Lake for our first training run with the group. Our friend Lauren met us there, she will also be training with the 4:10 group. For our first run, we did an easy 7 miles. Nelson, our pace leader, kept us at a comfortable 11:00min/mile pace. The pace leaders let us know that our long runs would be much slower than we are used to. The first 8 weeks of the program are base-building weeks.

The DRC has group runs on Tuesdays and Saturdays. The rest of the runs I will be completing on my own (or with some running buddies if that works out). There is another group, an offshoot of DRC, that meets Wednesday nights so if it works out that I can run with them some weeks I will.

So, after all that explanation, here is the plan for this week. The training schedule that the DRC gave us has times instead of miles (ex: 30 min instead of 3 miles) but I will note my planned mileage as well.

Sun 7/22: 30 min cross train (yoga)
Mon 7/23: 30 min recovery run (3 mi)
Tues 7/24: DRC training group, 50 min base/easy
Wed 7/25: 30 min recovery run (3 mi)
Thurs: 7/26: 50 min base/easy run (5 mi)
Fri 7/27: Rest
Sat 7/28: DRC training group, 8 mi long

That's more days running than I am used to, so we shall see!

Arugula Pesto

I've been on the lookout for recipes that don't require much heat, our kitchen can heat up the entire downstairs. It's hot enough outside, no need to bring it indoors!

This recipe from Cooking Light seemed to fit the bill. I don't make pesto at home often because the ingredients can be expensive. I read that you can store pine nuts in the freezer for up to a year, so at least they will not go to waste. I ended up making this two weeks in a row to use up the extra basil and arugula, but it was so good I couldn't wait to repeat it!

Linguine with Arugula Pesto

Ingredients:
12 ounces uncooked linguine (I used whole wheat spaghetti)
1 tablespoon pine nuts, toasted
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 cups loosely packed arugula
2 cups loosely packed basil leaves
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
6 tablespoons grated fresh pecorino Romano cheese (I used parmesan)

1. Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain in a colander over a bowl, reserving 1/2 cup cooking liquid. Place pasta in a bowl.
2. Place 1 tablespoon pine nuts and garlic in a food processor; process until minced. Add arugula and the next 5 ingredients (through black pepper), and process until well combined.
3. Add arugula mixture and reserved cooking liquid to serving bowl; toss well to coat. Serve with cheese.