XMP Marathon Training: late June - mid July

I haven't trained this hard for anything since my swim around Manhattan Island!  XMP meets on Tuesdays and Saturdays, with Tuesday being a speed work or hill work day and Saturday being a long run day.

My experience with XMP thus far is that I'm learning to love Saturdays, and hate Tuesdays!

Sat 27 June 2009: 14 miles @ 9:35 min/mile

• We get into our pace groups for the first time and do 14 miles from KenGar to Needwood and back.  I'm in the 9:45-10:00 group, which seems crazy fast on paper.  It turns out to be even more crazy fast in person!  The run is rather pleasant on fresh legs, but the group is filled with over-achievers and our pace slips into the 9:20s and 9:30s.  I realize that this isn't quite the group for me, and I make a mental note (and a quick email to Mike) that I'm moving myself into the 10:00-10:15 group, which should be a lot more comfortable.  All in all, great run, fantastic conversation with great people, but a bit of a wake-up call that I can't handle a 9:30+ pace for my long runs!

Tues 30 June 2009: Hill Repeats of the "The Silencer": 6 miles @ ~ 10 min/mile

• It's called "The Silencer" for a reason, and I found out why.  On the RCT, just north of Aspen Hill, there's a hill, if you can call it a hill.  It feels like more of a mountain when you're climbing it!  We did the hill repeat 6 times, where you ran up the hill as fast as you can and then jogged back to the bottom of the hill to recover.  At hill repeat 2, my legs were screaming, by number 3, they were crying, and by 6, I wanted to cry.  
• Wanting to cry at the end of a workout = an awesome workout :)

Sat 4 July 2009: 14 miles @ ~10 min/mile

• 14 miles from the CCT in Bethesda to RCT at Meadowbrook Stables to the DC State Line and the back to Bethesda via a loop around the Mormon Temple before taking the PHM course back to Bethesda.
• I'm running comfortably and happily with my new 10:00-10:15 pace group.  
• A completely uneventful training run, which is how they should be!

Tues 7 July 2009: Hill Repeats of the "The Silencer": 6 miles @ ~ 10 min/mile

• Repeat of last week's workout!  My legs didn't start crying until the last one this time. Operation acclimation to hills has begun!

Sat 11 July 2009: Tour of Central Park: 16 miles @ 9:50 min/mile

• I'm out of town to visit friends in NYC and can't make my group long run!  So what is a runner to do?  Get her friend Ted to bike along side of her for a 16 mile run around Central Park!  Perfect time to preview a little bit of the NYC Marathon course that I'm going to be running on November 1st.  In addition to fantastic conversation for the entire 16 miles, I get a good mix of terrain - some flats, some hills, some mega-hills.  A bike race (I'm guessing a 50 mile bike race) is going on in the park, and that gives me some distraction as well.  My overall pace is a little too fast, but because I'm consciously trying to push myself on the uphills and coast it out on the downhills.  NYC Marathon, here I come! :)