5 weeks down, 11 more to go!

With 5 weeks of "official" training and fundraising down and 11 weeks left until race day, this is where things start to get interesting. The excitement of starting the training cycle is beginning to wear off. Waking at 4am for a 8-10 mile training run is feeling a bit harder. My body is significantly stronger than it was after the Philadelphia Half-Marathon in November but this is the part of training where it starts to warn you about the dangers of over-training. A sniffle here, a tight calf muscle there - these are the things any runner starts to pay attention to in training. A delicate balance as my grandmother would say. I realized after my run that one of the things that helps me win the mental game is regular check-ins, blog comments, facebook wall postings, and donations with fun messages from friends, family, co-workers and complete strangers who have heard about my run from others.

In the past week, I have bounced back from a cold to nail all 3 of my running workouts plus 3 days of intense cross-training. I did mile repeats on the track this past Friday and am growing to enjoy to track (much to my surprise). The marathon course was packed with runners on Sunday morning! There was a strong 18 mile per hour headwind heading outbound from Brookline and it was fairly cold. The return trip up and over the Newton hills was warmer with no wind. I managed a quick pace through the hills with a focus on the mental images I need on race day - strong stride, good arm movement, relaxed shoulders. Overall, a great 13.1 mile run at 9:15 pace!

There is a mental game for fundraising at this point as well. I have raised $3194 to date - just over 30% of my goal. I am excited and grateful to everyone who has contributed. A good friend is hosting a dinner party fundraiser this weekend and it is sure to be a great time! I need to begin focusing my energy on getting fundraising letters out and pulling together an event here in Boston. My 34th birthday is just a few weeks before race day and I would like nothing better than to hold an event raising $3400 to celebrate.

A Week In Review

Last week I did more cross training than running in an effort to let my foot heal without losing ground marathon training. I have a tendency to run through injury and this training cycle is largely devoted to breaking my bad training habits. Much of last week was spent reminding myself that there are times when less is more.

This week, however, has marked a return to foot health and some challenging training. The tempo run that I did at 4:30 in the morning with a -2 degree windchill was mentally quite challenging. My time was slower than it should have been because my body took longer to warm-up and get to tempo pace than it should and I was using a huge amount of energy shivering while I ran. All of this despite 2 layers of clothes from the neck down!

Friday brought the long dreaded hill repeat workout. I survived and might eventually learn to like these workouts. At the very least, I need to learn to make friends with them - marathon survival depends on it.

Today was my 12 mile long, slow run. I've struggled to hold back on recent long runs but nailed my goal pace today. The route was beautiful and challenging. I covered Winter Hill in Somerville, Bunker Hill in Charlestown and a few other smaller hills along the way.

In between, I have stuck to a fairly strict routine of cross-training, weight lifting and core work. I realized toward the end of today's run that the core work is really starting to pay off. The other realization I had while out running the streets today in 2 week I entering the challenging training weeks where encouragement and check-ins are critical (Hint,Hint: leave comments).

Up this week: more running, mailing letters to potential donors and working on a fundraising event. I need to raise an average of $630 per week for the next 13 weeks to meet my goal. I'd like to ask you to give $5, $10, $25, $100 to help meet that goal. My 4-year old keeps asking why more people don't give - you can help to shift the conversation with him to focus on all of the fantastic people who do.

Updates

I have spent the past two weeks in North Carolina relaxing with family, testing new training routes and getting a massage from Xanie Adams (the world's best massage therapist in my opinion). The training runs went very well for the most part. I started my training time in North Carolina with a wet and muddy 6 mile tempo run. This run was in a bit of a down pour and I had to negotiate flooded sidewalks (where there were sidewalks at all) and significant red clay mud. My moderately clean running shoes are now dyed a lovely brown to go with the orange trim! I was a bit faster per mile than my planned pace but did not feel that I was pushing the pace at any point. Overall, a great run that accomplished the goals set out.

A few days later, I had a tough interval workout. I HATE interval work with a passion. For those who don't know, an interval workout involves running a set of repeats extremely fast. In running like in most things I do, I don't like failing and sometimes avoid things that I am not good at. In this particular workout, I wanted to focus on my running form and fast foot turnover. The workout supposed to be in .10 mile intervals because I was on a marked trail rather than a track. I started with a 1.5 mile warmup and then moved to I did 8 runs of .10 mile with jogging between each run. Unfortunately, I didn't accurately convert .10 mile to meters and was WAY TOO FAST (Read 5:30 per mile pace instead of 6:30 per mile pace). I finished the workout and did a 1.5 mile cooldown feeling more wiped out than I wanted. This training run, while reminding me that I like being fast can also lead to injury and if it happens too often, a slower than planned race. Luckily I have friends and family members who know a great deal about running and can help me remember to leave some gas in the tank for race day.

I also had the chance to do a 10 mile run in Washington, DC. It was 19 degrees or so with a significant headwind for the entire route but I'd never been to Washington as a tourist so I squeezed some site seeing into the run. Just how much site seeing you may ask - the National Zoo, White House, Congress, Supreme Court, Library of Congress, National Mall, Washington Monument, Reflecting Pool, Lincoln Memorial and Veteran's Memorial. I saw 1 runner, had hands so cold I couldn't work the key coming back in the door and my Clif Blocs froze but it was a great route. The only downside is that I tweaked my foot about 8 miles into the run and have had to take a bit of time off to let it heal. I am betting that part of the lingering pain has as much to do with spending the 6 hours immediately after my run at the Smithsonian Natural History and Air/Space Museums with an excited 4 year old as it does the rock that attacked me while running.

On a fundraising note, I have passed the $1200 mark and several folks from around the country have volunteered to host small fundraising parties that increase the size of circle giving to MBHP. Want to host something? If so, leave a comment or drop me an e-mail! Tomorrow I get to pull on my running shoes and hopefully (foot injury permitting) bang out 10 miles!