Livin' the Dream in Lima

Boston is just five weeks away. Which seems sooo long still. Why did I choose a 16-week marathon training plan? I think next time I will go with a 12-week plan. Less time to get bored. And nervous. Anyways, last week was an okay week of training. I developed a sore throat on Tuesday and have been fighting some sort of head cold/sinus congestion crap ever since. Today I could hardly speak. It made teaching oh   so enjoyable . (You try commanding the attention of 18 teenagers with the voice of a whisper. Not fun.) We ended up with a snow day last Wednesday, so I ran my 20-miler on the treadmill. It was pretty boring. Kathie Lee & Hoda just aren't as entertaining as they used to be. Saturday, I raced the BBO 4-mile. This was my 3rd year running this race; it's pretty fun. In 2011 , I ran 27:07, and in 2012 , I ran 25:01. The course is pancake-flat, but there's always a lot of wind on the country roads. Secretly, I hoped to break 24:00 this time around. (Lofty, I k...

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...

So with this crazy busy life, I haven't had much time to blog. I'm sure you've gathered that. This also means I haven't had much time to cook. Does that mean we haven't been eating? Oh no - it just means we've been eating a lot of frozen pizza, easy paninis, and Schwan's chicken pot pies. (Oh how I love the Schwan man.) As it turns out, I returned from my run this morning to find out we had a 2-hour delay due to the wind chill. Best thing ever. Even better, the 2-hour delay turned into an entire day off. Which means I get an entire day to play catch up and even some extra free time to myself. Woo hoo!  It just so happens that I actually cooked dinner on Monday night, and it was so delicious that I actually took a picture. And now I even have time to blog about it! One of my Business Man's favorite things to eat is pulled BBQ pork or chicken. I stumbled across a recipe for Asian BBQ sauce, so I thought I'd give it a try. Sweet & spicy ...

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...