4 Weeks and Counting!

Time is ticking away ladies.... who is running St. George?  I need to hear from you.  What do you have left on your training calenders?  The heat down hear has been crippling my ability to finish my long runs.  I have done 2 back to back halves the last few weeks... and I am going to do a 20 miler this week, what are you doing this week?  I am so off my original schedule that at this point i am happy to try anything :)

Boston update

Whether you want it or not here is my running update. With 13 days until Boston I am finally running some. After 5 weeks of lap swimming and slogging through the water I was able to walk/run 8 miles this past Saturday. I miss running with my friends M&M, Suzie, Poky, and Smith. On Sat. I went to a Park in downtown Portland that has an extensive trail system. (My coach doesn't want me running on pavement yet) This trail is many miles long uphill and downhill through heavily forested vegetation. Very beautiful. So I walked mostly and ran about 2 of the 8 miles through mud and rain and loved every minute of it. It was so nice to get moving again. My quads felt good and even better they still felt good the next day.

I met my coach Monday morning for him to actually finally see me run for the first time. He told me I heel strike too much. We worked on that and increasing my cadence. We worked on running downhill and uphill all on a treadmill. I don't think I have ever enjoyed a treadmill more. It was just so nice to run. I ended up doing 5 miles. Afterwards he had me lift weight to see where my strength was in my legs. I have a very big discrepancy between my quads and hamstrings. (After this marathon I need to work on those hamstrings).

We talked about a taper plan (which includes the most running I've done in 5 weeks) He told me to adjust my marathon goals. I have to tell myself this is not a PR marathon. This is a marathon to experience. So with that said these are my goals for the marathon.

1. To finish
2. To enjoy this experience after all it's Boston Baby!
3. I hope to be under 4 hours

Wish me luck and in a year from now I hope to have a PR marathon somewhere and maybe I'll be able to meet some of you mommies. I feel left out not going to SLC.

Accountability

So mommies it's truth time? How have you done this last week in training? Erin, are you sticking to your new training plan? You pregnant women how are the bellies holding up? You girls amaze me. I just couldn't run while pregnant. It hurt those ligaments too much.

As for me, my right quad is still very tight but I can walk up and down the stairs pain free. I've spent 11 days in a pool now swimming laps and water running. I am improving my efficiency in the water. I will tear it up when my triathlons come up this summer. I will be meeting my coach on Friday morning to try running for the first time in 2 weeks. Wish me luck!

How YOU Doin'?

The title of this post is only sort of amusing if you've watched Friends and remember Joey's famous line. Anyhoo, how are you all doing-- with your training that is?

I think I'll post here each Monday morning with this title. Then, we can all report on our long runs over the weekend. I'm just assuming here that most of us save long runs for the weekend.

Mine was GOOD! I ran 13 miles while staying down south in Provo. My parents have a cabin up Provo Canyon, so I parked my car at Canyon View Park (about 2 miles up the canyon) and then followed the Provo River Trail for the entire run. It was snow packed, but still run-able in the canyon and then completely clear down in the city.

The strangest, most difficult part of this run for me (a die hard University of Utah fan) was that my turn around point (6.5 miles) was Lavell Edwards Stadium! Of all places!! So I spit on the ground and went on my way. KIDDING.....of course I'm KIDDING, people! You know I only bring this up because there are some Coug fans (alum, even!) amongst this group of running mamas.

But seriously, Provo is a BEAUTIFUL town and they have an amazing running/biking/walking trail. I loved it. (But not enough to live there. ha ha.)

OKAY, enough foolishness--

Chime in with your weekend training updates!