Countdown to Beantown - 8 weeks out

I can't believe there is only 8 weeks left till the Big Day.  These last four weeks have just flown by.  When I left off in my last training update, all was well.  I was in a good place and I  felt strong.  I should have known that I'd jinx myself.  Shortly after that I started having knee issues.  It turned out to not be anything too serious but it did set me back a little.  I missed a long run and then took a week off all running.  It probably wasn't necessary but I felt it was better to be safe and give my body some rest just in case.  A few trips to the PT and some hip strengthening exercises and I'm almost back to normal.  I still have knee pain at the start of pretty much all of my runs but it subsides once I'm warmed up.  I managed 29km yesterday pretty much pain free. 

My speed work has really taken a hit in this last training cycle.  I haven't done any of the interval work I was supposed to do and I've barely done my tempo work.  It hasn't been easy between my knee issues and the amount of snow we've been getting.  I may actually start to do my interval work on the dreadmill, especially since I have my first race of the season coming up in 2 weeks.  I want to make sure my legs are tuned up and ready to race. 

This is how my last four weeks panned out:

Week of January 20th:  Run:  9.85km, swim: 4900m, bike 85km, stretching & strength:  2h 35 min

Week of January 28th:  Run:  37.07km, swim:  4550m, bike 46km, stretching & strength:  2h 30 min

Week of February 4th:  Run:  38.58km, swim: 3650m, bike 0km, stretching & strength: 3h 25 min

Week of February 10th:  Run:  47.09km, swim: 3650m, bike 0km, stretching & strength:  1h 30 min

I'm supposed to be up around 55-60km a week with my running mileage but that hasn't happened with this last cycle.  I'm hoping that I get back on track over the next couple of weeks because a sub 3:20 at Boston isn't going to happen if I don't put in all the work.  I've also missed my goal paces for my last 2 long runs as well as my tempo run from this past week.  I think that running in the heat made it tough for me to meet my long run pace and my goal tempo pace.  My long run yesterday didn't start off well at all.  I had stomach issues the last two days we were away so I was fairly dehydrated and my eating on Friday was anything BUT clean so I'm not surprised that I didn't feel great when my run started.  But miraculously, I managed to turn it around and negative split the run.  My legs didn't feel great but I toughed it out.  Best part, by the end of the day my stomach felt pretty much back to normal.  Thank goodness.

Now that we're back from vacation, I can get back into a regular cycling routine again and I'm planning on adding hot yoga into my workout rotation at least two to three times a month.  If I want to stay injury free, I really need to work on my flexibility.  It needs to become part of my training along with everything else I do.   For now it's back to A.R.T on Tuesday and a massage on Wednesday.