Week 2 - The Weakening

Don't forget to buy your tickets to my LORI RUNS BOSTON MARATHON FUNDRAISER on Sunday, February 8 from 2-4pm at American Fresh in Assembly Row, Somerville!  It'll be a great afternoon with food, a raffle, cash bar and a finish line photo booth!  Tickets are on sale NOW!

You can also make a donation directly to my fundraising page. Remember that any gifts made before 12/31 are tax deductible for 2014 so there's not better time to give!

The Holidays Are a Trap

There are a lot of reasons I thought training for a marathon over the winter was going to be hard - low temperatures, snow, ice, darkness - but it never occurred to me that the HOLIDAYS were going to get in the way so much! Due to drinks with friends, parties and family obligations, I didn't put sneaker to pavement ONCE during week 2 until my 9 mile long run on Sunday.  Here's the thing - I am actually OK with it.

Listen, my doctor told me to take it easy on my knee and I feel a little bit like the craziness of the past week actually forced me to listen to him.  When I was training for the half marathon over the summer I didn't really let anything get in the way of my training...I can be VERY VERY stubborn that way.  It wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility for me to mentally tell my doctor where he could put his well intentioned advice and do whatever I wanted to do anyway.  I consider this week "off" an investment in my future weeks of training and decided to cut myself a little slack.

All that being said, there was NO WAY I was going to skip my long run this weekend.  It's essential to get these suckers in rain, shine, wind - whatever.  For the most part it was actually a pretty perfect Sunday to run. it was cold and gray and there were some stray snowflakes in the air.  I decided to run into Boston today and at the end of my 9 miles I would hop into the nearest T station and commute back home.  This was a fun way to not worry about where I needed to turn around to go home and just enjoy a little adventure - no planned route, no rules. 

I ran from my boyfriend's apartment in Cambridge to the Mass Ave. bridge and headed into Boston, ran along Boston Common to Faneuil Hall, to the waterfront past the Aquarium onto the Harborwalk and past Rowes Wharf and into the Seaport District and around the Moakley Courthouse.  At the Courthouse, I decided to turn back around since T stops become few and far between (let's be serious guys, the Silver Line DOES NOT COUNT).  My 9 miles ended back over by the Marriott Hotel on the waterfront. 

This run was a little funny because I wore my GPS watch AND used Runkeeper for the first time.  They disagreed on how far I had gone, so I went a little longer to hit 9 miles on my watch - 9.16 on Runkeeper (see left).

I stopped at the 9 mile mark and after a few minutes wished I had just kept a light run going until I got to State Street Station because WOW it got really cold really fast in my sweaty gear.  Fortunately, I didn't need to wait long for the train and bus back home and got to jump in a nice hot shower.

My boyfriend is from Louisiana and goes home for Christmas every year.  We had our Christmas celebration together on Saturday and he surprised me with (among other things) an awesome foam roller!  I had been dragging my feet on buying one because - well they're a little expensive - and I was so excited when I opened it.  He's a keeper, right?  Anyway, after I took my shower and threw on some sweats, I took my new roller out on a spin and could kick myself for not getting one sooner.  It was AWESOME.

It's already Tuesday of week 3 and I am afraid to say it's not starting out much differently from week 2, BUT thanks to taking Christmas eve off, no work on Thursday and a gorgeous forecast for the weekend, I hope to make the most out of what's left this week!

Wishing all of you a wonderful Christmas (or whatever traditions you hold dear)!