Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Training, Scheduling & Life

It's been a few weeks since I actually posted something on my little corner of the web, but one word for you.....LIFE. I was so looking forward to the holiday's being over to get back into routine and life settling down, and I almost feel like the opposite happened! It's been just as busy, but not centered around tree's and presents and food. Okay, the last one's a lie- I'm a runner...everything is centered around food. Anyways, moving on.

We are now a few weeks into the new year now which means I am a few weeks into a new training cycle. Kind of nice how it works out the two go hand in hand, training for Boston begins at the same time as a fresh start and a new year.

I'm excited about this training cycle in general for a lot of reasons. First, it's BOSTON. Second, it's bound to be smoother than Boston training last year. Third, this will be the first full cycle with my coach {We had 8 weeks together leading up to Rochester, and another 11 weeks before Memphis}, so it's time to see what can be done when we aren't feeling rushed. It also terrifies me as there is more time to give me newer and harder workouts; terrifying yet exciting.

A few weeks into the year and the training cycle, also means we are a few weeks into Upstate winter training season. Like many Northern US regions, this turns weather/running conditions into a game of odds. Guess what, odds are- if it's single digit temps, the wind chill is probably making the weatherman tell you it 'feels like' -XX outside{how he says these numbers without dropping F-bombs is beyond me}. Odds are, if you get ANY amount of snow- you're going to be having sore ankles and stabilizers from uneven footing{You'll also fall on your ass at least once}. Odds are, if there is a day that is actually nice enough to not wear every piece of clothing you own to run- it will be a scheduled rest day for you. That's just life in the north. You live and learn; you also invest in a lot of warm clothing and a gym membership.

With that said, the first few weeks of Boston training have been going well- and have included my fair share of treadmill AND outdoor miles. We took the first few weeks easier with regards to mileage but am now building back up, with fun new workouts to boot. January is shaping up to be a good starter month, even with a sick week thrown in the middle of it- I'll recap January training and first few weeks of Boston training this weekend:)

I finally started writing out my race calendar for the year (new tab up top!), and it's shaping up to be 3 races between now and Boston. I'm excited to run Lake Effect half next month, and then get a 5 mile race and another half in March. Beyond that- I won't commit 100% to any races until after Boston. I want to see how it goes, what my time is, and where my head is at before I think about what my focus will be the rest of the year. I have a few ideas what I would like to see during racing season this fall- but those will stay under wraps for a while until some more final decisions are made. Maybe I'll run another marathon, maybe I'll tackle an ultra, and maybe I won't do either. Boston will be the biggest determinant of this, so plenty of time to mull it all over.

Life outside running has been par for the course- hectic and busy. I live and die by my overly organized, very color coordinated Google calendar. Work schedules, training schedules, appointments, to-do's, even simple things that I just need to remember (like, hey my teamie has a big workout tomorrow I better make sure I text her!). I'd lose my head if it wasn't attached to the damn calendar (it is indeed attached to it, Google avatar).

My calendar is essentially the adult version of Tetris. The sound the game makes when a line is completed, is the same sound as me breathing a sigh of relief when it's time to go to bed each night. Most of the time I manage it all pretty well, but there are days (like yesterday) where I was simply beyond frustrated and just wanted to erase everything from the schedule for a month and plant my ass on a deserted island with a margarita and no communication with the world. Luckily my friends handled me acting like a child with class and are still talking to me today.

As luck would have it, the timing of my tantrum yesterday was pretty good. Because my Google calendar for this weekend looks less like Tetris and more like GIRLS WEEKEND. There are lots of exclamation points on it, lots of meals out planned, beers to drink, cake to eat, running to be done and laughs to be had. We planned this a long time ago and now it's finally happening. A weekend with Heather, Hollie and Britt- if you see all of us go MIA on social media please bring bail money and come rescue us.

So there's a few updates for now, I didn't forget about this little blog of mine- but living my life and writing about it can't always happen at the exact same time :) More to come soon as I have some fun drafted posts :)

Anyone else feel like life didn't settle at all after the Holidays?
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