I know I’ve barely talked about my training since… May/June when I was sick of running. IT IS OKAY if you lost track and think I gave up… but I wanted to share some good news. Cause who doesn’t like those?

It took a whole year but I think I am back. BACK BACK. I was doing dandy and PRing like crazy for some time, marathon time, half mary, all of it until July last year. Many things happened but no injury, which was the strange part. It was like the world was conspiring to make me stop: there was an ulcer with GERD that took about all my strength for 4 months, a frigid winter, moving, trips, getting married, 4 falls with dizzy spells, training partners that moved or had babies, etc., etc.

I totally kept trying. I did the 2012 NYC Marathon with ZERO training and it hurt like a mofo. I barely trained or did a long run in the winter, and did the 2014 Boston Marathon in even LESS training… also AWFUL. I tried to keep going. This was my mileage earlier this year:

But I kept trying. I was NOT enjoying it, but I just figured, if I stuck with it, it’ll come back. It didn’t. In June, I stopped. I then run once a week, then I wouldn’t run for 3 weeks. I stopped.

By mid-July I started to feel like running again and I was putting consistently 30 miles a week, which is great for me. I also found a few great training partners for the week runs, which I think has made the biggest difference in the world. Because they are a tiny bit slower than me, I don’t feel any pressure. But OMG, they’re ALL way better than me. THEY PUSH. I really needed that. They take me out and neck-breaking pace and all I gotta do is keep up, I don’t have to think and if I don’t think, I don’t suffer. It’s AMAZING. Daphne, Mo and Kettia are brutal runners and have the best stories. I love it. It works!

Then I managed to rearrange my weekend partners so we could all start meeting up. It’s a bit more complicated (we gotta meet downtown, so there’s travel time before and after the run, etc.) but SO worth it. The issue is, while I was putzing around for a year, Blaise and Patricia got a LOT faster (than before, and I was already the slowest link!). A LOT. So I join every run hoping I can keep up. Here is a great one I shared: we did 18 miles at average 8:30 with the last mile at 7:33. That is RIDICULOUS to me. Even the last time I did a good marathon (Berlin Marathon in 2012, race time was 3:27) my long runs have always been in the 9:30s. This past weekend I run the Tune Up, an 18 mile race with 3 loops of central Park in 8:25 pace (last mile was 7:30 als0). Keep in mind, I was chasing Patricia, so if I hadn’t had her, I don’t think I could have done it. But still, my legs are capable of it, which is hard for me to conceptualize.

My long runs have been brutal but we’ve been doing speedwork every week too. For example, we did Yassos 800s this week. Keep in mind, these were in dirt, and there were hills, ok? These were my laps: 3:22, 3:28, 3:20, 3:24, 3:26, 3:18, 3:19, 3:27, 3:28, 3:25. Which I think is quite promising. If someone taunts me, my legs seem to be ready. My head never is though.

So, I am quite AMAZED at how FAST I got fit after such a crappy year. AMAZED. It definitely was the team work. I am curious to see what sort of shape I am in 😉

I am going on my honeymoon (yes, a year late!) next week but when I am back I’ll be racing. Two Halfs. In consecutive weekends.  I am almost kind of excited. I am EXCITED. Greta’s Gallop for training and the weekend after I’m doing Staten Island Half. We shall see…! Any predictions???