Winter!!! One Month until Boston!!! More Winter....!

And the winter.... trudges..... ON.
AND ON OMG YOU GUYS! RAWR!

1 week ago. 15 inches of pure, pure crap!!!!!!! And 1 cute horse.

The past couple of weeks have been, believe it or not, dominated by more truly horrific weather.
I have lived in Maine for 34 years and have never seen such madness!

This gorgeous foot of snow/ice was 4 days prior to the 15 inch snowmageddon. EFFFF.

Trying to look past the crapola that are the conditions...
Things have been decent.

I had a bit of the sick last weekend which was crummy timing as I had a 20 on the schedule- which I did because I'm not a complete slacker. Duh!
Continuing in the theme of this training cycle, it was absolute shit for the first 10 then absolutely perfect for the last 10. This is truly mind boggling and, if nothing else, leaves me with feelings of happiness as (apparently) I am quick to forget the first half of my run.

I often wonder if my feelings of malaise have to do with my spectacular cross training???

Because clearly, this is not exhausting. Good times. 

When I'm not busy clamboring thru 10 feet of snow I have been doing yoga, which I win at weekly. (or a few times a week) (I have logged more wins at snow-walking than at yoga if we are being honest.....)


In the true competitive spirit of a runner I decide in every class if I am the top finisher or a disgrace at life. It can go either way, especially since I am slightly delayed and can not do any inversions. Also, I have the flexibility of a 2x4 and approximately zero balance.
Regardless, I LOVE yoga and think it's the activity to thank for my current healthy body. (and I must admit, that I get scolded for my post practice fist pumping and declarations  of "WINNING AT YOGA!!!!" but I don't mind, I have a lot of fun there and can take a scolding.)

With less than a month to go I am feeling pretty strong (today) relatively quick (today) and completely badass (today.....)
Come chat with me tomorrow and I will tell you how weak, slow and pitiful I am.
HAH! Typical marathon training. All kinds of shenans.
Since the weather has been so wacko I feel that is partially to blame.

Late March??? Late January maybe.

I am hesitant to make a guess at my Boston finishing time just yet because this winter has given me a training cycle that I have never seen- and hope to avoid at all costs again- thank YOU.
But in upcoming days I plan to talk about my bets for my finish time, training details, Fall marathon plans, and other amusing things.
So stay tuned!

My long hiatus ends. For now.

Oh hey. It's been a while!
I must admit there is no exciting reason for my internet absence other than I simply have not had much extra time. It's really a good thing that I don't blog for a living as I would be flat broke.

I have had so little time to blog as of late that I neglected to show all of you my truly glorious Hampton race photo. You know I rarely miss a chance to show the world how awesome/well dressed/classy I am so this really says something about my schedule.

The pain face. Haahaha wow! There were better pics but why use those when you have THIS?

I'm enjoying counting down to Boston this year as it also means that I'm counting down to Spring. I feel that in 6 weeks we might be seeing temps more consistently in the 40's and, perhaps, will have smashed the snowbanks into submission. I am hopeful but not counting on it!

After a thoroughly less than stellar week of training after Hampton I shaped up for a good one last week.
There was nothing at all wrong with me after Hampton, but I admit that I was quite "over" winter, treadmill running and temps in the teens. I was not a particularly positive person that week but I managed to get over it without loosing friends or injuring anyone.

I also made the less than happy discovery that I did NOT PR in Hampton. *sigh* I probably don't need to admit it but I refuse to be a lying liar who lies so here is the deal: I must be such a derp that when I ran Great Bay a couple years ago I was looking at my gun time, or something. My GBH PR still stands at 1:36:27 F**K. I only noticed this because I looked at athlinks and was basically like "......uh oh....." So damnit, I need to run another fast half. UGH!!

I have had a couple of long runs that have made me feel good about the direction my training is heading in. If there is one thing I have learned over the past year it is that each workout shows me something specfic, useful and different. What I mean by that is that I do not judge my potential marathon speed in my long run, I use that to gauge my overall endurance- which at this time feels better than I expected it to given the treadmill winter. I calculate my speed based on what the numbers say in my speedwork, which I'm reasonably pleased with as well. I do find that another factor is recovery time after a long hard week- and that is the thing I'm the most pleased with. My recovery has been fantastic, to the point where if I was still a young, dumb kid I'd be skipping my rest days (which I most certainly would not do!)

Some post long run shenanigans. Totally normal.

 When I get a second to actually breathe around here I'm going to take a look at my overall training hours for the past month or so. I know that compared to many (or most) marathoners I limit my weekly mileage. It is hard to say if this will be a "forever" thing but for now, I know my body stays healthiest when I am incorporating a variety of strength training and lower mileage than people with my time goals usually put in. Mostly I am curious to see what my weekly totals are in hours rather than miles. Because seriously, marathon training takes up a chunk of the day! *worth it*

So there is the ultra condensed version. I hope to find a little more time to chronicle the lead up to Boston as it's an exciting time. I'm pumped for a few big weeks of training, a big asshole snow storm tomorrow (I'm lying, I could not be LESS excited) and hopefully the arrival of Spring. This winter has been sticking around, being a jerk for long enough!

This is winter, continuing to be a complete shit head.