the warmer the better.

It's been a while! Things have been very busy with work, training and in general. I've been feeling great for the most part and have been pretty good about staying on track with my runs, especially when the weather is warmer than 15 degrees. This weekend was pretty tough with the wind on the Charles, but it always holds true that the most adverse runs are the most rewarding. Finishing 17 miles in a little under 3 hours was discouraging, but the amount of times we dodged ice, snow and the like really tacked on time.

I started to post last week when I was in DC:

Yesterday, today and tomorrow I'm in DC for work and visiting with the Jumpstart DC staff! It's so great to see the staff in other areas of the country to be able to put a face to a voice (or email). The staff here are so wonderful and very committed to Jumpstart and it's connection to children in need in DC. I'm going to be sad to leave them because they are all so wonderful. Tomorrow I will be recruiting at Georgetown at their career fair and then hop on a plane back to Boston, just in time for Saturday's long run. This morning I took advantage of the weather here (it's almost 60 degrees today!) and ran around the mall. It was incredible to have the monuments as the backdrop for my morning run - I could definitely get used to that.


All went well on the trip to DC and it was actually 70 on Friday - it felt so good to just walk outside, even with no specific destination. But now I'm back and it snowed again a bit yesterday and it's slated to snow again this weekend. Someone, who has run the marathon before, sent me a great article about training in Boston this winter. Though I'm not in the picture (thank god), this is the same path I run every Saturday for my long runs in Newton on the actual marathon course. Take a read: Marathon hopefuls try to stay the course. Thanks so much Erin!

I'm so close to my goal and STILL haven't had an event yet. Soon though! I'll keep you posted!

Have a great week everyone!

nothing to say.

It is not usual that I sit down, wanting to blog, but then nothing comes to mind. I feel like I'm reliving writers block in college all over again. This relates to hitting a wall in running; wanting to run or train but can't get worked up or convinced to go. Usually I overcome this quickly, but there has been two times during training thus far that I just can't muster the physical or mental engery to go out and run. I've learned that this isn't such a bad thing for me though because I've ended up get things done that I've been stressed about or have on my mind to get done.

Moving forward, I have been thinking about what I can do if any of these days happen again. Our team coach told us that if we ever decide to do cross training instead, we should double the amount of time we would have spent running. My favorite cross training is days include 30-45 minutes of strength training and 30-45 minutes on the elliptical. If I substitute a run for crossing training in the future, I might find myself in the gym for longer than that, but probably will never go for more than 2 hours at one time.

The weather certinaly hasn't made training easy either. I want to blame lack of motivation at times because of the weather, but honestly feel like it's a cop out. Everyone in Boston is going through the same weather and same hardships - come marathon day I hope that the snow is gone, as well as the puddles! Yesterday I ran home for the first time in a while since it's dark when I leave work. I managed to step in snow up to my mid-calf and then decided that I need to make better choices when choosing a path or route. I am anticipating,  though, that there will be many articles saying this is the toughest winter to train for the marathon since 1996 (that says something!).

The wind is whipping outside my window right now and all I'm thinking is "is it spring yet?"

Have a great week!