Team Run

This morning, Mal and I headed back to our old stomping grounds in South Boston for our first long run with our Team In Training (TNT) team.

We met at the South Boston Running Emporium, which is located practically across the street from our old apartment. Wouldn’t that have been a nice commute!?

Mal and I are the only two people in the group who are training for the Honolulu Marathon, but we’ll be running with other TNT participants on Saturday mornings. The other people are training for different events, like the Disney Marathon and Rock ‘n’ Roll Arizona Marathon & 1/2 Marathon. Mal and I ran with about 12 other runners this morning.

Our first run was just 3 miles, but Mal and I killed it! We finished in 23:12 (7:44 pace), which was probably slow for my speed demon husband, but it was fast for me!

After everyone finished the 3-mile run around Southie, our coach, Christina, talked a little bit about pacing and the run-walk method. Her advice for long runs is to start out slow on the first half and leave “gas in your tank” for the end the run. She said this will be especially important on marathon day.

Christina also talked about the run-walk method, which is basically alternating running for 9 minutes with walking for 1 minute. But, instead of lazily walking during the 60 seconds, she suggested speed walking to keep up your pace while catching your breath and regrouping before running again. (Some people do this at water stations.) This method will help with one’s endurance when tackling longer distances.

Once we said goodbye to our team, Mal and I visited our favorite place for iced coffee in South Boston: P.S. Gourmet!

P.S. Gourmet offers so many yummy flavors of iced coffee!! I picked brown sugar with milk, which sort of tasted like maple brown sugar. Mal picked regular iced coffee. How boring!

Hooray for P.S. Gourmet!

Before running this morning, I ate a small-ish breakfast of whole wheat toast with cashew butter and sliced strawberries.

Christina suggested eating breakfast about 2 hours before our long runs. She also said to experiment with what we eat– some food combinations work better for some people than others.

I also drank a small glass of iced coffee with soy milk.

After our run, I ate a second piece of whole wheat toast with cashew butter.

Up next: shower, pool party, and a very special dinner!

Enjoy your Saturday!