A Change of Plans

Not a change of plans with respect to my overriding goal. Definitely training for Corning. Definitely looking to do a BQ time. But Jed and I were chatting last night and the group he is running with in London has a run scheduled for this Sunday from London to Port Stanley -- 25.79 miles, just shy of a full marathon. Jed was planning to do it at a 9:00 minute pace with 1 minute rests at the 8 waterstops along the route. That would put him across the line in exactly 4 hours.

'Hmmmmmm...', I thought to myself. So I chatted with Coach Brian about doing it and he is going to do it as well, since he's scheduled for a long run this weekend as well. He won't be doing the full distance, though, since his pace will be better than 8 minute miles and he doesn't want to overdo it.

From my perspective, doing this run in roughly 4 hours -- particularly if we're taking it easy -- will do a whole lot for my confidence. Pacing with Jed will help us both keep on track. And it should (if all goes well) get me past that 30k mental wall that I'm worried about hitting.

The only downside is that it is a total departure from the training plan we downloaded from Runners World. But, hey, what's one more change! This week was supposed to be an easy week -- 4 x 7 and 8 mile runs. So, I'll just swap out this week for an easy week next week, when I was supposed to do an 18 miler on the Sunday.

As for the actual running part of this post, I ran with Jody and Paula today. 7 miles -- although Paula did a bit less since she's resting for a half marathon this Sunday.

Our average pace today was roughly 9:30 miles -- about 6 minute kilometres, so nice and easy. Despite the pace, though, we were all drenched when we got back. There was quite a bit of fog, so the air (again) was thick with moisture.

So, now my mind is on the Sunday long run. I absolutely want this to go well. I just have to remember not to stress about it!