Gotta Run Now

I ran 16 miles today. With the Hanson's plan, you run long runs a little slower than marathon pace, but training fast to race fast makes sense to me so that's what I did. My average pace for the run was 9:00/mile. I ran the first three easy and then I ran the last 13 miles faster. My marathon goal pace is about 8:55.

Thankfully,  I saw some speedsters on the trail at mile 3 and I just tried to hang on. It was a little harder to keep pushing myself when they stopped running, but at mile 11, I saw another speedster and I tried to catch up. By the way, I follow from a distance so that I don't bother my pacers! ; )

Food in Belize

We recently went on a trip to Belize. The photo is of a fruit stand in San Pedro, Belize, where I stopped for golden plums and pepitas. Golden plums are stringy so you'll need dental floss after you eat one to get the strings out of your teeth, but they were fun to try. We ate mango and pineapple, too. On our trip to the Mayan ruins, we ate chicke…

Yesterday, I ran 5 easy miles and then I ran the last 11 miles at a pace under 9:00 for 10 miles. There was one slow mile in there that I ran at 9:01, my average for the whole run. That's just 3 seconds per mile slower than I need for a BQ or a 3:55 marathon finish. It wasn't an easy run because I was pushing the pace, but I came close to meeting my pace goals so it was a good run.

I ate sourdough toast with honey before the run and I ate GU gels at miles 5 (no caffeine) and 10 ( a caffeinated one - 20 mg). I don't know if caffeine makes a difference for me, but here's an article that says that it helps.  I do think that the pleasant weather helped. It was only about 60* with overcast skies and there was a break from the humidity.

I listened to music during the run, which made running round and round the 3 mile loop at Memorial Park less boring. I usually see "regular" runners and walkers along the way, which makes it feel more like a small town even though …

I took a trip to Central America last week. My husband and I took a plane and a boat ride and arrived on Ambergris Caye, an island in Belize. The top photo was taken during a flight on a small plane from the island to Belize City where we got on another plane to return to Houston.

While in Belize, we took a boat ride to the Lamanai Mayan Temple. The temple was in the rain forest and we saw wild crocodiles, iguanas, and bats. My husband even gave a monkey a banana. In the next photo, I'm climbing down the steep stairs after climbing to the top of the temple. I was thankful for the rope to hang onto.

We rode a jet ski a couple of times. The water was a beautiful turquoise.

I ran along the beach with thatched huts and boats. I stopped along the way and watched the fish swimming in the clear water.

 We stayed at the Mata Rocks Hotel and the next photo was taken from our patio, close to the ocean. In the mornings, we saw dolphins in the water from our patio.

I was surprised at how pea…