Livin' the Dream in Lima

Boston. What an experience.  By God's grace, I was not anywhere near the finish line when the explosions happened. I had finished the race around 1:40pm, and walked the couple blocks to the family meeting area to meet up with my Business Man and BFF Talen. After visting for awhile, we headed to the car around 2:40pm, ten minutes before the explosions happened. We didn't even realize anything had happened, because we were in the car on the way to our hotel about 10 miles away. After receiving several texts & calls, we flipped the news on to see what everyone was so concerned about.  It was so surreal. Just one hour before, I had run by the same exact spot. Crossed the finish line with a smile on my face.  Immediately, I started contacting my running friends that were at the race. After learning they were all okay, we sat there in the hotel room for 3+ hours, just watching the news coverage.  I have such a bittersweet ball of emotions about the who...

Well, it is here. Time to head to Boston! The original plan was to drive the 13ish hours today, but after spending some time on Priceline last night, we ended up with a great deal on flight + car rental.  16 weeks of training, and I'm ready to go! It's crazy how much the taper helps... just a few weeks ago I was so over  running. Just get the darn marathon over with already. But now, after having a couple laid-back weeks and lower mileage, I am ALL ABOUT THE RUNNING! I cannot wait to toe the start line on Monday and unleash the beast.  Kicks for the race I have been so blessed to have awesome training partners through this awful winter... despite the nasty snow, wind, freezing rain, I got in more outdoor runs than I ever have in a winter. So a big thank you to Amy and Jim for motivating my butt out of bed at 5:30am multiple times a week. So glad we are done with this weather. I was talking to my students about the race yesterday, and told them that I have r...

I had originally planned on writing this post about 2 weeks ago... when I was actually 'halfway' to Boston. Now that two weeks have passed, the title of this blog post had to be changed.  So, the Boston Marathon is exactly 6 weeks from yesterday. 41 days away... and I'm feeling pretty good?! (I think...) I have missed the last five weeks of recaps so here's the highlights: Running. Lots of it. (duh) The last few week's weekly mileage amounts. Last week's cut-back week of [only, haha] 45 miles was much appreciated. Some killer long runs... including my first 20 miler of this training cycle, a 16-miler with 12 @ 7:04 pace, and a 15-miler with 4 miles at tempo pace. New running jacket - my pacer running bud gave me this purple windbreaker and I think I've worn it on almost every run since. Such a fun color! Lots of this stuff. I'm so over winter. It's March 5, I'm just ready for some temps in the 40s... is that too much...

First peak week, dominated. Okay maybe not quite dominated , but over with. And I can sigh a big breath of relief. The goal was to get in about 60 miles total, with an 18-19 mile long run and a 4x2-mile threshold workout. The weather wasn't too cooperative... half my runs were on the treadmill. (Boo.) Thanks to my buddy MLK Jr., I had last Monday off school, so I tackled a beast of a threshold workout on the treadmill. The wind chill was near 0*F so there was no way I was battling crazy winds and extreme cold with that  long of a workout.  My torture of the day was 4x2-mile @ 6:32 with 1-2 minutes standing recovery. Basically, I set the treadmill to 9.2mph with a 0.5% incline and ran sprinted 2 miles... and then hopped off for a minute while the belt ran on wildly without me. I didn't want to waste time slowing down and then getting back up to speed. After a minute of standing awkwardly on the treadmill rails (trying not to fall and make a fool of myself), I would...

Why is it so much more difficult to find motivation to run during a cut-back week? It's almost like "Oh... I only  have to run 45 miles this week, no long run, let's just lolli-gag around and sleep in everyday." That was basically my life last week. No worries, I still got everything done. ;) It was a pretty easy week - medium long run of just 12 miles and then a 6-mile tempo run. [ Sidenote : Do not attempt a tempo run the morning after giving two little tubes of blood for a life insurance exam. It will be harder than usual and you won't understand why at the moment. At least that's what I'm telling myself to explain why my tempo run was so difficult.] Since my long run was so short (marathon training definitely screws up your definition of 'long run'), I threw in some steady hill repeats at the end. I found about a quarter mile hill and just ran up & down it several times, keeping a steady pace. The weather was beautiful - 40'...

Last week was a great week for training - lots of easy runs, a V02-max workout, and my first long run that actually felt 'long'.  The goal was to get in 50-55 miles, and I ended up with 56ish, so right on target. Saturday's long run was glorious ! Temps in the 50's in January (!) makes me a very happy runner. I headed out for 16-17 miles and ended up with almost 18. And I remembered to bring fuel!  I tried out the blueberry-pomegranate Gu chomps, and they weren't my favorite. I ate one every 2 miles once I hit the 8-mile mark and they left a strange aftertaste. Pretty much as soon as the aftertaste went away, it would be time to eat one again. I'm thinking I will try something else next time.  This was the week of the 8's... what a monotonous bar graph. I'll try better next week to make it a little more exciting. Weekly Rundown 1.7.2013-1.13.2013 Mon - 8.2 miles easy Tues - 8.3 miles easy Wed - 4x1200m @ 4:29 (4:32, 4:31, 4:31, 4:34);...

2 weeks down, just 14 to go! Haha... not a good way to think about marathon training.  This week was super-fab, though the temps have been quite frigid! I only succumbed to the temptation of the treadmill once, so I'm quite proud of myself for that. Tuesday was January 1 (duh), and I participated in the annual New Year's Chili Run. It's a fun run that is hosted by a member of the run club here in the Bean Town. 10 miles with friends was the perfect way to kick off 2013. Too bad I couldn't convince my Business Man to join me. Not even the lure of warm chili could get him there! the group My speedwork of the week was 5x1km @ V02-max with 3:00 jog recovery. The day I ran this, it was super  icy out... so I took it to the treadmill. Yup, I had that dreaded machine flying at 10.0-10.2mph; it's no wonder I didn't fly off the back of it! It went well though, and it was better than slipping & sliding and breaking something on the ice. On Saturday, I r...

Is it really time to start this whole marathon training thing again? It seems like just yesterday I was crossing the finish line to the IL Marathon. Yet that was 8+ months ago. Yikes, will life ever slow down? As we were driving home to visit our families for Christmas, I sat in the car and wrote up a training plan for Boston. I referenced my trusty training coach, good ole' Jack Daniels, and came up with a 16-week plan. There's a good mix of tempo runs, intervals, and hills, and I'm looking forward to switching it up a bit in the next couple months. It gets a little boring running easy all the time. I have begun to really enjoy long car rides. It's 6 hours where I don't have to do anything  but sit there! And think! And read! And sleep! Love it. It's a little more aggressive than last year's marathon training plan, but I think I'm ready. About half of the long runs actually have speedwork incorporated into them, so that should be fun! (Or it ...