Countdown to Beantown - 4 weeks to go!

Gotta be honest, when I read that title, I get butterflies in my stomach and I feel like barfing...just a little.  I can't believe there is only 4 freaking weeks left in my training.  4 weeks!!!  Gah.  If these next 4 weeks are as successful as the last 4 have been then I suspect Boston will be a good day.  Let's pick up where we left off 4 weeks ago shall we?  There was much whinging in that post and I'm happy to say that even though I've had a few crappy long runs in this cycle (including yesterday), most of my other workouts have been good.  I even managed to get all my runs in while away for work in Miami, including a 5x1000m interval workout along the boardwalk.  And to top it all off, I ran a half marathon PB on my birthday.  Not just a little PB either.  I shaved a whole minute and 9 seconds off my time from last year.  The best part was that I paced myself smartly.  I didn't go out too hard so I had plenty left in the tank towards the end.  I'm not going to lie,  it's a nice feeling to start passing folks in the last 5km of a half marathon. The added bonus?  I re-qualified into NYCM with my time.  YEAH.

Where I've taken a hit as of late is my cycling and my strength training.  I was supposed to start phase 2 of the NROL program just after I got back from vacation but that never happened and then the follow week was my race and I didn't think it was wise to start a new weightlifting program the same week I was running a half marathon.  Then I was away in Miami.  I could have started it this week I suppose but I wasn't organized enough to look up all the exercises.  So that will have to wait till next week and even then, I'll probably skip the leg part of my Thursday workout because I'm racing again next weekend.  And as for my cycling well, it had been a month since I've been on the bike but I rectified that today.  I'm not going to fret about my lack of cycling fitness right now as my first tri of the season isn't until the end of May but, I also don't want to completely slack off.  I can't get another entire month go by without riding.

As usual, I've been plugging away with my swimming.  I'm really closing the gap on 250,000m.  After this mornings swim, I'm at 218,250m.   If I can manage to keep up a monthly average of 20,000m I'll be there by sometime in May.  April will be dicey because of Boston;  I'll miss 3 days of swimming for sure, possibly 4 depending on whether or not I can drag my butt out of bed the day after we get home.  Although, I usually get out 15 minutes early so I can hit the showers before they get too crowded.  Might have to change that over the next few months so I can squeeze in a few extra meters. 

The first challenge of this month - the Further Faster Forever Badge Challenge ended today and I managed to snag 20 different badges.  I'm sure there are a couple of others I could claim but I don't have picture evidence so in the interest of playing fair, I'm not going to claim them.  It was a fun challenge and I hope they do something like that again!  Today also marks the start of the #30DaystoBoston Instagram challenge that Ty from Seeking Boston Marathon is hosting.  I can't wait to see everyone's pics over the course of the next 30 days. 

All in all, I'm pretty happy with my last cycle of training.  Now I just have to make sure I work on recovering better (i.e re-hydrating and getting more sleep) and not getting sick!!