Week end 4/15/12

Two short runs this week.  Seven miles total.  Tomorrow is here, 88 degrees and all.

Week end 4/8/12 Weekly miles:  22

The miles are getting smaller and the time grows near.  I'm both dreading and looking forward to next week. 

 

Week end 4/1/12  Weekly miles:  26, long run of 12

After last week's 20 miler, my goal now is to get to the starting line healthy, strong and rested.  No risks.  No stupid stuff.  No running along the seawall facing traffic.  No midnight 15 milers.  No more 20 milers just to prove that I can do it (because no matter many times I do it, I won't believe I can do it again.)  Nope, now it's time to get to the start, fret about the weather, obsess about forgetting my running bra, go through the details in my head a hundred times, worry about my flipping stomach.

But since last Saturday alone, you have poured in $1,871.50. I am deeply grateful.

 

Week end 3/25/12  Weekly miles:  40, long run of 20 on the marathon course

This week marks the last heavy week of training before taper, and the last 20 miler of this season - hopefully of the year, excluding the marathon - was run on the course itself, with a couple hundred others doing the same thing.  The best part of the supported run were the big random bowls of skittles at the gatorade stops.

Because I don't usually run long on Saturday, the schedule had me running ten more miles on Sunday.  I could have done without that, but with three weeks to go, there's no reason not to do the final push.

 

 

Week end 3/18/12:  Weekly miles:  22, long run of 12

A swift moving stomach bug took hold late Friday, making me grateful it's now and not a month from now.  By Sunday I was recovered enough to put in a slow 12 miles.  A recovery week, in anticipation of the last push before taper, so all is well. 

 

Week end 3/11/12:  Weekly miles:  40, long run of 20

Just over five weeks to go.  My replacement running shoes arrived so I can break them in before the 16th.  My treadmill needs some maintenance.  My biggest running conundrum:  do you have to chew up the Target fruit snacks to get your shot of sugar, or can you just swallow them whole for the same effect?  Long run of 20 miles late Sunday afternoon.  I ask Ben if he'll hold a pack of fruit snacks for me when he sees me at mile 24 again; he nods yep.

Week end 3/4/12:  Weekly miles:  28, long run 12 miles

I won't ever learn that telling yourself you will run 12 miles after you go grocery shopping and clean out kids' bureaus is a bad idea.  As I trudged downstairs at 10 pm on Sunday night, my husband shook his said:  "You're dedicated; I'll give you that."  Running this 12 miler put me into Monday morning. I stumbled awake to get the kids ready for school and go to work after four hours of sleep.  Nope, I won't learn.

2/26/12:  Weekly miles: 34, with a long run of 20 miles

The coach who wrote my training plan remarks that you can screw around, sometimes, with the weekly runs, but do not cheat on the long run.  I cheated a little with the weekly runs; I was unable to get more than 14 miles spread out over six days.  But today was Sunday, the first of three 20 milers.  I hedged most of the day - woke up late, took my daughter to and from a birthday party, went food shopping - and even at 3:45 I was playing mind games, maybe I don't have to do it today, I'll just switch it for another run next week, I have two more 20s scheduled and this week was not so great anyway.  I fed my kids an early dinner, gave them the go-ahead to head upstairs and come down for me if they needed me, made the gatorade and trudged downstairs.  Twenty miles, on the treadmill, done.  The two good things about this run were that 1) it was more than a minute per mile faster than last week's 19 miler, for no reason other than I was trying to focus on miles 13-20, which can be no-man's land in the maraton, and 2) I started 24 from the begining again, yes, from the series 2002 start.  I had forgotten all about Nina the Traitor, and how Kim got kidnapped, and all sort of juicy wonderful deceptive events.

 

2/19/12:  Weekly miles:  35

At the beginning of a long run I"m always certain I'll never be able to run that far.  During the run I'm certain that I'm running too slow.  Finished the run I'm sure it was just a fluke - surely anybody could run 19 miles on a treadmill. 

2/18/12 - I've got 19 miles tomorrow, and I don't feel ready for it.

2/12/12 - Weekly miles - 30, long run of 13.

2/5/12 - Weekly miles - 41, with 17 on the treadmil

1/29/12 - Weekly miles - 32

Sixteen miles on a treadmill on Sunday, with Jack Bauer keeping step with me.  Let it be known:  if Jack Bauer ever asked ME to open the door and that he was BEGGING me and he was NOT BLUFFING, he would have no problem with me.  

The mileage mounts, and I wonder about my goals.  Right about now, getting through it sounds right.

 

1/22/12 - Weekly miles:  30

Snippets from the week:  Molly telling me I'm nuts.  Long run on the treadmill.  Feeling tired already at the end of a cutback week.  Two more months of winter - and at the end of it, 26.2 miles to run. 

 

1/15/12 - Weekly miles:  34

Take your pick:  icy ocean winds or cozy basement treadmill runs.  This week I chose both, opting for a 7 miler in the wind on Saturday and a 14 miler on the treadmill Sunday.  Ratcheting the miles, trying to get my heart into the rhythm of training.  Stepback week coming up, and I'm glad for it.

 

1/8/12 - Weekly miles: 27

This week was an exercise in Attempting To Wake Up Early To Run, which was partially successful.  I do seem to spend a good portion of my brain trying to puzzle out when I'm going to get my runs in, in between work and family commitments.  Often that means I am running outside at 10 pm with my blinky vest.  This week it meant 12 miles on the treadmill in the middle of Sunday, prior to taking the kids to the Y to swim.  And about the everlasting secret wish for a public bathroom open in the middle of winter - who do I talk to about this?

 

1/1/12 - Weekly miles:  20.17

This week's runs included one three mile muddy run on the high school track of my youth; I brought my kids to see my parents in Philly for a few days.  Missed one six miler but it's a stepback week, so I won't worry too much.  Long run of 8 miles today:  oceanside, windy, bright, cold.

As of today you've brought me to $713 out of my $5916 goal.  Thank you.  15 weeks to Boston.

 

12/25/11- Weekly miles: 27.2

Uneventful is good, and this week's runs were fairly uneventful.  I did procrastinate too much on my 11-miler, which I switched to yesterday so I wouldn't have to worry about it today, dedicated to family.  A good day for the kids, which is the most important thing.

Sixteen weeks to go - I never feel I'll be ready, and then, all of a sudden, I am.

12/18/11 - Weekly miles:  26.

Yes, I was the dumbass who couldn't figure out how to get around the construction on the causeway so if you were traveling eastbound into Nahant, you saw me running on the top of the three-foot-wide seawall for today's 10 miler, jagged rocks and high tide to the left, traffic to the right, 20mph crosswinds.  Big dummy.

12/16/11 - In April 2012, I will run the Boston Marathon for MAB Community Services.  Follow me here for 18 weeks; I'll update you on my progress (and the wind, and the everlasting search for a public bathroom, and the dark basement treadmill runs). 

Week one is almost done - and I still have two fives and a ten in front of me through Sunday. 

Over the last two years you have helped me raise $9,084 for MAB.  My goal this year is $15k total.  That's $5,916 over 18 weeks.  Please help me get there!

Thank you - and as always, see you on the roads.