Just 26.2. - NBD

Well, the time has come. No more putting it off.  Race day is 34 days away, and it's time to embark upon my 5th 26.2.....3rd standalone.  Yikes.

Before we get into that craziness, let's recap the last week....we had some birthdays (my 32nd), some sickies (hate colds) and....well...see for yourself.

blowin out the candles!

Helping mom open her presents!!

Sleepin off those sickies....love my boys.

PANTY RAID!!

I formally apologize to my 16 year old son in 2929 but....kid seriously has a thing for my clean underwear.  He wears them around the house like a vest and flings them like a slingshot.  Oh, the ladies are just gonna love him! :-P

All fun and games aside though, with minus 5 weeks till go day on my last race I've realized....it's ed been a long season.  Starting in May with my double marathon, 4 tris, a half, and assorted running races....I'll be glad to finish the season out soon.  I'm currently following the Runners World FIRST plan, which is supposed to be 3 runs a week - one tempo, one speedwork and one long run.  They are all timed off your 10k best - my long runs are about a 9:30, tempo is anywhere from 8-8:30 and speedwork 7:00-7:30.  I've been making some tweaks to allow for working full time and mommyhood along with work travel, but I've tried to be pretty consistent.  I felt good about it up until about 2 weeks ago and now my long runs seem to just fall apart.  Not sure why.  I've been testing out a varied approach and making 4 runs a week, one easy, one tempo, one long, and a HIIT workout thats about 25 minutes with 5' warmup, cool down, and then 1 minute all out (10 mph) alternating with 2 minutes easy run.  Eh, it's all a crap shoot.  Honestly, I'm a bit sleep deprived, a bit stressed, and I think my body is tired.  The goal is to break 4, but I'm honestly having some doubts about it...I did well with this plan back in 2011 and missed a sub 4 by minutes.  So the plan is good.  And I know my base is strong - I could do a marathon right now, no problem.  But the thought of holding a 9 minute mile for 26.2 kinda freaks me out.  Thoughts from you speedy people?  I know it's all relative and to be honest. I really am enjoying 99% of my runs.  I've learned how to run on 2 hours sleep.  How to do an 18 miler on the treadmill.  How to get in 15 miles...in 3 separate runs due to kiddo stuff.  How to run in the 90 degree heat at 6am after being hungover.  For the first time, running feels like a release and not always such hard work.  But....I don't want to be a hobby jogger.  I feel that 3:5x.  It's there.  And I'm not sure what I can do in the next 5 weeks to catch it.  I have one more 20 miler, two 15s and a handful of longish tempo runs.  I think this might be a don't let the horse out of the barn.  I've started doing some yoga and Pilate's.  Eating more meat.  Hydrating.  We'll see if it helps.  I probably just need rest, but when running is your stress relief....hah.

So there you go.  2014 marathon in a nutshell.  I'm an idiot.  But at least I'm an idiot with a goal, right? :-)