Fair to Fair Plus

Today marked the end of week two of training.  The skeleton of the training plan consist of intervals on Tuesday, medium distance run on Wed, steady run on Thursday, and back to back long runs on Sat/Sun.  I hate intervals but I know they are needed and will make me stronger.  Thankfully Tuesdays are not my responsibility and Phil is planning those runs for us.  Good thing: otherwise I might not do them.  Phil summed up the week nicely when I asked him how he felt post our long run on Saturday, "Fair to fair plus."  The goal is to be tired but not completely trashed - I'll take that.

New brightly colored compression sleeves to make it easy to spot me on the road.  Great Christmas present  from the parents.

First run in the new shoes.  I have a pair that is only two months old with very little miles on them and now this pair.  I figured I need to start rotating between them so on race day they are worn equally and I can switch easily if one gets wet.

Happy I just completed my first interval workout of the last two years.

  

Phil and I on Saturday after our first weekend run of the training plan.

Post 10 miler after 13 the day before.  First successful back to back.  They only get longer from here.

I hate the cold but no excuses.  Glad I made it out the door - there ended up being a gorgeous sunrise.

IMFL 2012 was the first time I took Ibuprofen for pain.  The second time was this past week after my left knee started acting up.  That is my biggest worry for this race.  I took from the first week of Nov (when Ironman was) to the first week of January off for recovery.  I actually had an off season with little exercising.  I had too - I didn't have a choice.  I wanted my knee to fully recovery.  I think it is/was mostly IT issues.  The foam roller and I are becoming good friends though.  2012 was my first injury free season until two weeks before Ironman when I decided to PR a 5k when I hadn't been doing speed work.  Poor choice.  Dumb.  Taking it this week was more out of fear.  I didn't want anything to flair up.  I was careful the first two weeks of January slowly increasing mileage but now I'm here where I have to increase quickly but carefully. 

16 miler on weekend number two.  The best part was being saluted at mile 10 by a homeless man.  He had the biggest smile on his face and looked so proud of us: it made me put a little extra pep in my step.  I love random moments on the road.

Ended the week feeling fair with a solid ten miler in windy conditions.

I really am so excited that training has officially started.  It's almost overwhelming to think that each run is putting me closer to race day.  Who knows what that day will look like but one thing is for sure: it will be a crazy and difficult day.  I'm ready!

Sulphur Springs 100 Mile Trail Run

It's time to bring the blog back because a HUGE adventure is on the horizon...the Sulphur Springs 100 mile train run in Ontario Canada May 25th 2013.  That's right - this year - not next.  Four months to train - four months to make it happen - four months until I go back to being the crazy girl who does Ironmans and not the crazy girl who always is running.  I'm really excited about this challenge.  I'm not uber pumped about running 100 miles but it is something I want to accomplish at some point in my life so I figured why not this year.  At first I was wishy washy but once I convinced Phil to do it with me I become fully committed and jumped in with both feet...now I can't stop thinking about how fun/difficult/miserable/tiring/rewarding this is going to be!

Meeting with Phil at Starbucks to think things through and discuss possible training plans:

 

 Officially filling out my registration form!

So much for online training plans: I have enjoyed coming up with a rough training plan myself.  I have no idea what I'm doing.  I figure if I throw some numbers out there it should/might work out.

The plan coming together!