Look Out Beantown, Here I Come!

This will probably be my last post until after Boston, but you can bet that I'll be tweeting and posting on Facebook and Instagram over the next few days.

I've been thinking about obsessing about my race day plan for the last few days now.  I've been trying to familiarize myself with the course profile because I can honestly say I don't remember much from the last time I did it.  I remember the steep downhill at the start and I remember cresting Heartbreak Hill but I don't remember the four rollers that happen between miles 16-20.  I must have blocked them from my mind completely, ha ha.

Yeah, it doesn't look that bad all stretched out like this but looks can be deceiving.  I do remember my quads being completely shredded by the time I hit the 15km mark.  Not a pleasant feeling when you're barely half way through a marathon.

This time around things are going to be different.  For one, I have 10 more years of experience under my belt.  Secondly, I'm mentally a lot tougher than I used to be.  When things start to hurt, as I know they will, I won't get down on myself and I won't slow down.  I'll work through the hurt.  Obviously I want to hurt to stay away for as long as possible so that's where my pacing plan will come in.

My goal is to go sub 3:20.  I'm not sure how possible that will be given that my legs are still not 100%.  I'd say they are still at about 85%.  I ran this morning and my left leg still had some nerve pinching going on.  I'm hoping with some tennis ball rolling and anti inflammatories that I get to 95% by race day.  To go sub 3:20 I need to run 4:44 km's (7:37 miles) at the very least.  I ran that pace on my long run last weekend and it felt easy despite the less than ideal condition of my legs so that's a good thing.  The first 500 m from the start line is a pretty steep drop which evens out a bit and then continues to drop for the next 3.5 miles so it's easy to get carried away.  My plan is to hold myself back slightly for those first 4 downhill miles.  If I'm running a bit slower than goal pace, I'm ok with that.  Once the course starts to even out, my goal is to settle into my marathon pace.  I don't plan on trying to negative split this race, my goal is to run it consistently.  If I have a slight positive split, that's ok.  My biggest concern is that I will get caught up in the starting rush of adrenaline and go out too hard for the few first km and shred my quads.  If I can manage to run a fairly consistent pace that feels comfortable for the first half, then my hope is that I might actually have a bit left in the tank to pick up the pace once I get out of the Newton Hills.  And that will all depend on how my legs feel race morning.  Only time will tell. 

I obviously really did a number on them at Around the Bay but, as I said before, I don't have any regrets.  Especially now because when I came home last night, I had some mail from the folks at Around the Bay.  I thought maybe I got a finishers certificate since I was in the top 5 in my age group.  I opened up the envelope to find this:

I couldn't believe it.  2nd place??  How the hell did THAT happen?  When you look online I'm listed as fourth in my age group, however they do have a masters category so I'm assuming that a couple of the women in my age group placed overall in that category, thus bumping me up to second in my age group.  Whatever the case may be, it totally made my day.

 I'm still not packed which is kind of stressing me out.  I've been so busy at work that I haven't been able to give much thought to anything else.   I come home late so I scarf something down, pack my bag for my next days workout, make my lunch and then I'm so tired I have to go to bed.  I suspect that tonight will be a late night and I won't get much in the way of sleep since G wants to hit the road at 5:00 am tomorrow.  I can always sleep in the car though so I'm not too fussed about that.   All I need to do is get through today without too much stress (ha ha, yeah right) and then it's literally off to the race(s)!

Bring it on!

Is It All in My Head?

After my fairly positive post on Sunday, I've suddenly become overrun with these nagging feelings of doubt.  Doubt in my training and in my ability.  I think it's because my last few training runs have sucked.  Normally I am able to brush these off and move on but I'm struggling with that right now.   Probably because I have race number two coming up this weekend.  I'm running Around the Bay 30km on Sunday.  Last year was the first time I had run it in a while and I blew my previous time out of the water and amazingly, I still had a fair bit left in the tank to crank it up in the last 3km.   This year, I want to better my time by 4 minutes so I can complete the trifecta and get myself a gold medal.   Medal colours are awarded based on finishing times.  For women, 2:15:00 or faster gets you a gold medal.   Sub 2:30 gets you a silver medal and that's what I managed to snag last year.  Bronze is awarded to anything after 2:30:00.  I did the calculations and I will have to run 4:27/km's if I want to snag that gold medal.  I did a tempo run last night at a 4:26/km average pace and it absolutely killed me.  It was a total struggle.  I can't imagine 30km at that pace.  I'm sure my weight workout yesterday morning had something to do with it but when I got home, I was feeling pretty bummed. 

Made my pace but it was seriously ugly. 

Thankfully my voice of reason was just a phone call away.  G managed to kind of talk me off the ledge.  I still have some lingering doubts (mostly to do with my knees) but realistically it is what it is.  All I can do is go out and do my best on Sunday.  If I get my gold medal, amazing.  If not, that's life.  There's always next year.  That being said, I'm going to take it easy the rest of this week.  And by easy, all I really mean is that I'm going to skip my Thursday run and I'm not going to do any legwork at the gym.  Yup, I'm living on the edge baby.  I had some A.R.T work done on my legs today and no surprise, there were a ton of knots in my upper quads.  It was pretty painful but I'm sure by tomorrow I'll feel better.  Who knows, maybe this is just my head playing it's silly games with me.  After all, my horoscope today forecasts nothing but amazingness over the next little while. 

"The sun may be leaving your sign but that does not mean the good times are ending.  On the contrary, you will soon be enjoying the rewards of the efforts you made in recent weeks.  Well deserved they are too."

If it's THIS good it HAS to be true right??? 

In other exciting news, I have officially committed to doing 6 triathlons in my favourite race series this summer.   I'm doing 5 sprint distance (750m swim, 30km bike, 5 or 7.5km run) and one Olympic distance (1500m swim, 40km bike, 10km run).  It's been ages since I've actually done an Olympic distance race so this should be interesting.   The ultimate goal at the end of the summer is to do Muskoka 70.3 (2km swim, 94km bike, 21.1km run).  BUT that will be dependent on my training partner.  She has not committed yet and until she does, I'm not putting my money where my mouth is.  Either way it's going to be a busy summer.  Thank goodness G likes to race just as much as I do!

Have you planned out your summer races yet? 

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!!

Looking for a Silver Lining

I'm just over halfway through my training cycle for Boston and looking back at the last two months, I am freaking out just a little bit.  I only run 3 days a week and I've missed about 20% of my weekly key workouts.  I've done all my long runs except one so that is a positive but I gotta say, I'm not feeling 100% confident about my ability to go sub 3:20 at Boston.  Sure, a lot can happen in 7 weeks and my racing season is just starting so who knows.  But, if I don't pick it up and start becoming more consistent, then race day in Beantown is not going to be pretty.  Of course, just as my knees have gotten better, work has picked up as well.  When work is busy, it's busy.  Like 12-14 hour days busy.  To top it all off, I may have to travel for work next week.  I don't normally mind doing that, especially when it's to warmer climes (we're supposed to go to Miami, woohoo) but, traveling for work usually means no free time.  The project I'm going to be potentially working on will involve 4 days in Miami and then coming back to Toronto to shoot for another 3 days.  Those 3 days will probably be over the course of a weekend.  The same weekend I have 20 miler number three scheduled. 

That should make life interesting to say the least.

Of course, me being the worrier/planner/obsesser that I am, I'm already trying to figure out when I can squeeze everything in because I really don't want to lose another week of workouts.

<BREATHE>

Perhaps I'm just worrying because I had a crappy run yesterday.  I always try not to let bad runs get the better of me, but yesterday was totally miserable.  I felt like I hadn't fueled enough before and my legs just hurt from the get go.  I figured after taking 2 days off that I'd feel great.  I did have a massage on Wednesday and A.R.T work done on Tuesday so perhaps my legs haven't quite recovered from that yet.  Who knows.  All I know is that yesterday sucked.  There was ONE positive from yesterday's run and that was the fact that my knees didn't hurt at all.  Usually they hurt when I start running and then they're fine.  Yesterday I started running with no pain.  Zero.  And I managed to hammer the downhills with no pain either.  Another plus I guess.  My quads have paid the price for that today but I've got another A.R.T session on Wednesday to help work that out.  The other positive was that I managed to go 1 second faster than my goal pace per km.  I was supposed to average 5:03/kms and I managed 5:02's for just over 32km.  Ok so that's 3 positives.  Guess I found the silver lining in yesterday's run after all. 

Ugly, but I got it done.

I have a monster tempo run scheduled on Tuesday (16km+warm up & cool down) but given that I am racing a half on Sunday, I will probably dial that back to 12km, which I will more than likely do on the treadmill since we're supposed to get a huge dumping of snow.  I suspect there will have to be some doubles this week.  Fun times.  Guess I better get into the kitchen and prep some meals because I think I'm going to be bringing the hungries all week long. 

How do you deal with a bad run? 

Trying to Kick the February Blahs with a little #Sweatpink

Hellooo Friday!  Even though this has been a short week for us it's been crazy.  It's always hard coming back after a holiday but it's even more difficult when things are busy.  My brain was still on vacation for the first few days back.  I'm 100% back now, thank goodness.  I'm so glad we managed to get away when we did.  For some reason, February is always a tough month for me.  I always struggle with the "blahs" during this month and even though we went away, the blahs have managed to creep up and bite me in the butt.  I think it's been the amount of snow we've been getting.  I don't mind the cold, especially if it's sunny out, it's the snow that I have a problem with.  It really messes with my running.  Tuesday it poured rain and then the temperature dropped so everything froze.  I actually tried to run outside with my group and then after almost wiping out twice in the span of a kilometer, I decided it wasn't worth it so I turned around, got in the car and drove to the gym to hammer out 8km on the treadmill.  It wasn't pretty but I got it done.  I had hoped to do the same thing on Thursday but I woke up that morning feeling really rough.  The cold really wreaks havoc on my sinuses and I felt like I was getting sick so I skipped the gym and my run.  I'm racing next weekend and I don't want to chance getting anything.  Flu season is not quite over yet so I'm going to do my best to keep the cooties at bay until after next weekend.  We're expecting more snow and the potential of freezing rain later on today so it should make my 20 miler tomorrow an "interesting" experience to say the least.  I'm so over this lousy weather.  Just give me some sunshine and clear pavement pretty please?!?

Despite the blahs this week, there have been a couple of positives.  I'd say that Wednesday was probably the best day of the week.  I signed up for two more races:  Harry's Spring Run off 8km in April, just before Boston and the Bread and Honey 15km the first weekend in June.  It was also my first day back with my swim club after our vacation and I came back to find that I had been moved into a lane with some much faster swimmers.  Like a lot faster.  And much to my surprise, I actually managed to kind of hang with them on our workout.  I didn't get totally killed like I thought I would.  I definitely worked a whole lot harder than I have in a while but it was a welcome change. 

The best part of Wednesday was that I found out that I had been accepted as a #Sweatpink Ambassador.  What is Sweat Pink you ask?  It's a community of like minded women that are into fitness and healthy living.  I follow a lot of the ambassadors on twitter and they are incredibly inspirational and supportive.  It seems like a great group of women and I am excited to have been asked be a part of the community!  For more info you can check out Fit Approach or just click on the I am a #sweatpink ambassador button in the top right corner of my blog.

At least February is almost over.  In less than a week, we'll be into March and to me, that means SPRING is literally just around the corner.  I cannot wait.

Do you get the winter blahs?  If so, how do you deal with them?

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. 

Feelin' Hot Hot Hot.....

We couldn't have picked a better week to get away.  The day we left, Old Man Winter decided to throw a temper tantrum and spew snow all over the province.   Actually it was all over the entire eastern seaboard.  We were scheduled to leave Friday morning at 6:15 am and the tip of the storm had started to roll in on Thursday night.  Because I'm nuts, I actually ran home in it.  Well I ran about 9 of the 11km and then said screw it and called G to come and get me.  The unsure footing was starting to bother my knees and it wasn't worth aggravating them.
Of course, I was worried about our flight not getting out on Friday morning but G, ever the voice of reason said there was no way that we wouldn't leave as we were one of the first flights scheduled.  Sure enough he was right.  We actually even left the gate on time!  We didn't actually take off until 7:00 am after going through de-icing but I can't complain at all.  I was much faster than I had anticipated.
We arrived in Mexico less than 4 hours later and immediately forgot about the cold we left behind.  We sat on the beach and then wandered around the resort trying to get the lay of the land.  I quickly realized that there were limited areas in which to run.  The resort is set up like a big maze with a lot of dead ends and obstacles.  Not ideal for running.  I had a 21km race pace run to do on Saturday morning so I figured I'd have to go off the resort and into Playa del Carmen to even get 10km in. G was game to run with behind me for about 45 minutes or so.  We did a small loop inside the resort and then made our way out and into the outskirts of Playa del Carmen.  The roads were quite nice.  There was a huge bike lane that we ran in, all the way to the highway and then we turned around and actually ran towards Playa del Carmen city centre.
We left shortly after 7:00 am and the temps were perfect.  About 35 minutes in, it started to get hot.  I was moving along a decent pace and I felt strong.  My legs felt great and I had no knee issues at all. As soon as I felt the heat I started to struggle. I could feel my heart rate go up a few beats per minute. I knew the two 10 oz bottles of GU brew I brought would not be enough.  I still felt alright so I kept pushing the pace.  I think the locals thought I was a bit nuts.  Who the hell was the skinny white chick with the pig tails and day glow yellow shoes running through town like a madwoman??
The shoes definitely got some looks.  No matter, I chugged along looking for shade wherever I could find it.  G and I did an out and back route along the Main Street.  G had enough just over 45 minutes in so we made our way back to the resort.  I found another shaded road that ran parallel to the resort. I ran long there until I hit construction.  I found that despite the heat, I was still able to push the pace.
I was supposed to run 4:43's but I found myself running closer to 4:30's because I felt so good.  Once I got back onto the resort grounds it was like running into a wall of heat. I looked at my Garmin and saw just over 12km.  I figured there was no way I was going to make another 9km, it was just too hot.   I ran around to the side entrance and saw G sitting there waiting for me with a nice cold bottle of water.  He filled up my bottles and off I went to do another loop or two.  I figured if I got 15km in that would be enough.  On my second little loop I realized I'd be closer to 16km.  Even better.  As I rounded the bend back towards the entrance, I literally had sweat dripping off my elbows as I ran.  I was drenched.  But I felt great.  Sure it was tough but I didn't mind.  I think if I had had a clear path to run on vs having to do loops I might have stuck it out for the full 21km.  But breakfast was calling as was a nice cold shower.  Definitely not a bad way to start our vacation.  The best part:  I could spend the rest of the day "recovering" on the beach.

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The Yellow Birds First Flight

Only two more sleeps until I can run in a tank top and shorts.  YES!  I cannot even begin to tell you how. flipping. excited I am.  This winter has sucked the big one.  The only thing that would have made it worse was if we had a ton of snow.  Thankfully we haven't had too much.  It's just been grey, cold and generally miserable.  I need to see the sun and bask in it's warmth.   But for now, it's two more days of cold and grey.   Yeah yeah, I know, I'll shut up now.

Despite the grey skies outside, things have been looking up.  I had another really good A.R.T session yesterday morning and that, coupled with the 90 minute hot yoga session I did on Sunday has really helped to loosen everything up.  On Monday, I even managed to do 3 sets of 8 reps of squats with no knee issues.  I used a much lighter weight than normal (65lbs vs 80lbs) and I felt great.  No pain, nothing.  WOOHOO.   The only pain I felt was in my glutes the next day.  Proof that I actually used my butt muscles!  Yeah!

The real test for me would be when I hit the road for my run groups Tuesday Tempo session.  My training plan had me slated to run 13km with 10 of it at 4:35/km's.  Tough considering I hadn't done any speed work in about 10 days.  I figured I was going to suck some serious wind.  My PT had taped both my knees up so I was feeling really good about letting loose.  In fact, I was absolutely chomping at the bit to go out and run fast.  I wasn't going to be stupid about it obviously.  If I didn't feel great, I wasn't going to push it.  But if I felt good, then I was going to let the dogs out.

I was also going to be taking these babies on their maiden voyage outside.

The Yellow Birds

I got to the community centre early and a dynamic warm up and then started my 3km warm up.  My plan was to get back close to when the club left so I wasn't standing around too long.  I started out slowly resisting the urge to push the pace.  My knees felt a little weird but I think that was due to the tape.  My right one was bothering me a bit so I started thinking about taking the tape off when I got back.  But once I hit my turn around point, it had stopped and I didn't think about it again.  I got back about 10 minutes before we were scheduled to leave.  Most of the group had arrived and I made sure I stretched and tried to keep limber because I knew that as soon as we started, it was hammer time.  I had hoped that at least one of the fast guys was going to be there so I could have someone to chase and sure enough, Steve was there.  On these runs, he's always in front of me by about 300m or so which is perfect.  It's close enough that I never lose the motivation to keep up the chase.   I figured the first 2km would be the test for me.  If I felt alright in those 2km then I was going to give 'er.  That 2km came and went and I felt amazing.  Well, as amazing as you can feel when you're pushing the pace.  My legs felt strong, my footing was sure and I was confident in my stride.  The Yellow Birds were flying.  I felt great until about 10km in, then I really started to feel fatigued.  The lactic acid was starting to build up in my legs and any uphills I hit became a bit of a challenge.  Guess that's what happens when you take 10 days off running.  I shut the whining down and focused on working through the hurt.   Pushing the limits just a bit farther.  With 500m left, I really pushed the pace, hitting 4:05 km's.  I was hoping to sneak under an hour for just over 13km but I didn't quite make it.  I was close.  The Yellow Birds had an excellent maiden voyage.

BOOM!

It's official.  I'm back. 

Countdown to Beantown - 12 Weeks to Go!

I can't believe I'm already 4 weeks in to my 16 week training program for Boston.  That means Beantown is only 12 weeks away.  Geez.  I am really liking the "Run Less, Run Faster" plan that I am on.   As much as I love to run, my body can't seem to handle more than 3-4 runs a week so this works out perfectly for me.

I started off really well.  I followed the program to a T.  At least for the first week.  These last 3 weeks, well, I've been free-styling it.  I've been doing my prescribed Tuesday tempo runs at their appropriate paces and I've been doing my long runs at close to my appropriate pace but my track workouts have vanished.   I know, I know.  They are an integral part to this program.  It's not like I'm not running on Thursdays.   I've just been doing whatever workout that my club is doing.  It's just easier.  That and the track I like to run at isn't lit so until it starts staying lighter later or I luck out and find a good indoor track, I'll be doing interval work with my run group.  Sure it's not going to be the prescribed workout but, it's still speed work so hopefully that will count for something.

I finally went for a long overdue massage on Wednesday.  It had been 6 weeks since the last time I had one.  Far.  too. long.  Especially with the amount of abuse I pile on my body.  I was a total disaster area.  My shoulders and back were actually crunching while my therapist was working on them.  CRUNCHING.  I had little knots everywhere throughout my shoulders.  My calves were super tight and my quads and IT band were also in pretty rough shape.  I don't think it was any coincidence that my knees started to bother me a few weeks ago either - all those tight muscles are going to start pulling things out of whack.  They seem to be somewhat better but I can't say 100% just yet. 

This plan is definitely a bit more aggressive in terms of long run pace and mileage than I'm used to.  There are six 20 milers in it.  Yes, you read that correctly, SIX.  The most I've ever had in a training plan has been 3.  My long run pace is also about 15 seconds faster per km than what I normally run.  I've been responding fairly well to it so far though, until this week.   I had 3 great long runs and then was smacked up the side of the head with a horrible run yesterday.  I was supposed to slow it down and run 5:20 km's for 32km.  I started off slow and then found a pace that felt easy and comfortable and stayed there but my legs just didn't have it to go the distance so I stopped at just over 30km.  I don't think I had fully recovered from my massage on Wednesday.  My legs just felt tired and sore.   I figured I was due for a crappy run after having 4 weeks in a row of awesomeness.  Sometimes, that's just what happens in training.  You've got to learn to take the good with the bad and move on.  Tuesday will be another day to be better.

Week 2 Long Run.  Wicked Awesome.

Week 3 Long Run - Hellz Yeah.

Week 4 Long Run:  Ouch.  Although this did include a 5 minute pit stop so I can't complain TOO much.

One of my New Year's resolutions was to get back on the bike once a week.  That has just started to happen.  I think the cycling will help with my leg turnover when it comes to running.  If I plan on doing as many triathlons as I've indicated on my race schedule, then I really should get on the bike at least once a week.  So I figure Sunday afternoons or Wednesday nights will be my bike days.  Once Boston is done, then I can work at getting more cycling in and scale back on my running (gasp!).

So far, I'm feeling pretty good about everything.  I am chomping at the bit for race season to start though.  I can't wait to get started on my 13 in 2013.  I'm also curious to see what these legs of mine will be capable of on this more aggressive training plan.  March 3rd can't come soon enough!