The Edge of Spring

It's 40 degrees and sunny. It's 50 degress and sunny. It's 35 degrees and raining. It's 20 degrees and we have 14 inches of snow fall in a day. It's 40 degress and sunny. This time of year can be tough on the spirit and the plans of a runner in marathon training. You never know what you have to look forward to from day to day let alone from week to week. It's forced me to spend a lot of quality time with the treadmill, so much so that I've been writing little poems and love/hate letters to the treadmill in my head. They are all pretty terrible and not worth sharing. You'll just have to trust me on that.

What's been going on in my month of silence? Team in Training and just training. I've been mentoring for Team In Training fundraisers for the Flying Pig Marathon. It's been an interesting experience so far. I think I was expecting a much more interaction between myself and the mentees. So far that has not been the case. I sent out emails introducing myself and giving some tips. I called people to introduce myself. I've spoken with some. I've had good conversations with a few. A couple were confused as to who I am, and what they were supposed to do be doing. A few I've tried to get a hold of, but haven't responded at all. I guess they're out there doing their thing....I hope. Maybe my expectations were all wrong. Maybe this is typical. I'm not really sure. I'll just keep doing my thing and hope for the best!

My training is going very well. It's been helpful to go back and look at my training entries from this time last year when I was writing a short blog for every workout that I did. That was before I started using Buckeye Outdoors, so this was my training log. I can go back and see what my expectations were, how naive I was about marathon training, and how I was feeling. Based on where I was at this time last I think I'm in pretty good shape.

I'm just getting into my speed training for this marathon, and I'm feeling optimistic. It's the toughest part of the training as the miles really start to increase and the workouts become more intense. Despite what I know is coming in terms of pain and exhaustion I'm focused and ready to go. The time I'm spending in the gym doing strength training is paying off. I'm feeling very healthy and injury free unlike last fall's Disney training. The time I'm spending with TNT and the Children's Running Group is paying off. I feel very connected with the groups, and know that even though I still do a lot of training alone I always have support and a group run right around the corner.

All is going well for now. So bring on the spring. Bring on more daylight. Now if we could just add a few more hours to the day, so I could get some more sleep that would be great!