Big Things Poppin

I've got some big things poppin over in this joint but before I get to that let's recap my completely sub-par week of running.

I had three weekday runs scheduled but it turned into two and this is what it looked like:

Low mileage, but high quality so I'll take it.  Tuesday was hills as usual and yet again it was kind of an "eh" run.  Hills just aren't my thing and I don't think they ever will be.  One of these day they have to get a little easier though right?!

After a rest lazy day on Wednesday, I was looking forward to track party Thursday.  Even though these are hands down the toughest runs of the week, there's something about the variety and the challenge of them that makes me look forward to it.

On tap this week was 400m repeats, 8 of them.  My goal was to keep each repeat in the range of 2:19-2:32.  The verdict?

Boom.  Mission accomplished.  Let me tell you though, you don't realize how long one lap on the track can be until that is all you are focusing on!  Some of those 400's were the longest 2+ minutes of my life.  

That running club of super fast runners from last week was there again this week, running circles around us.  Their coach was there calling out times for their laps and every time we passed he told us "great job ladies" "you're working hard" "looking strong."  It was some nice encouragement, although I don't think he'll be recruiting us anytime soon.  I'll take him as a cheerleader every Thursday though!

The past week or two I've noticed a little niggle in my IT band/hip/knee area and it started to get pretty bad towards the end of this week.  It was so bad when I woke up on Saturday morning that it bothered me to even walk.  As much as I (surprisingly) wanted to do my long run yesterday, I called it off and decided to dust off my exercise sheet from Dr. Dan.

Yesterday and today have been full of lunges and squats and stretching and foam rolling.  I'm trying to nip this re-occurring annoyance before it gets too bad and benches me from running again.  After having a minor freakout about it, I emailed Dr. Dan because I've got some very important training coming up that I need to be 100% for.

What is this very important training for you ask?  Oh just this little event in May:

Yup, my first ever MARATHON!  I am officially registered and plan on running the Buffalo Marathon on May 26.  Training officially starts January 14 and I'm a whole slew of excited/nervous/scared shitless.  

Emily & Steph will be training with me (Emily is running Buffalo, Steph is running Cleveland) so I will have people to commiserate with, laugh with, cry with, and sweat with for the 19 weeks of training.  I still can't believe that I am doing this, but my "life is short" motto gave me the push to dive right in.  Why wait right?!  

I'll be working the next 6 weeks on building my base and getting in some more speed work.  Once January 14 is here, you'll be seeing a whole lot more of me as I document my journey to 26.2.  Buffalo, see you in 174 days!!!