Week 4 - Happy New Year!

I am so grateful to the many people who made donations to my Boston Marathon fundraising efforts over the past week - Ingrid, Cheryl, Dave & Susan, Jim & Diane and my amazing mom, Linda!  What a fantastic way to close out 2014 and welcome 2015.  I am now 70% of the way to my $5,000 fundraising goal!  Almost there!  You can make a donation to my page here.

I am hoping my Lori Runs Boston Marathon Fundraiser will help close the gap even more.  If you'd like to attend on Sunday, February 8, please purchase your tickets online at Eventbrite and I'll see you there! There will be some great raffle prizes available at the event from Bergamot, Red Bones, La Brasa, Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre and more!  You won't want to miss it.

Where did the week go!?

I feel like I want to blame the holidays for feeling like my training has stalled out a little, but really it's all on me.  I keep waiting for everything to click and find myself on the trails or the treadmill 4-5 times a week without fail or interruption like I did when I was training for my half marathon, but it just hasn't happened yet.  Yes, I've been favoring my knee and trying to be smart about not re-injuring it, but I feel like I could be pushing myself more.  I suppose it could be a New Year's Resolution, but who ever keeps those?!?  No, it's just a matter of making it happen and really getting serious about my training again.  Unfortunately, last week was not the week for THAT.

As has become my new (and unfortunate) tradition as of late, I have been taking two days off after my long runs to ensure that I don't mess up my knee so Monday and Tuesday were rest days.  Wednesday, New Years Eve, was my next day out on the road. We got out of work at 2:30, which allowed me to go home, change into my gear and run in the actual sunlight after work.  My GOSH what a difference that makes.  Sun, it seems to me, is what provides the extra kick in the pants to get outside after work and move my butt! Usually by the time I get home from work and put on my gear it's dark outside.  Once the sun is gone, I automatically lose my Mystic River route (friends don't let friends run in wooded areas alone in the dark) and have to do on-street running, which I don't like as much.  But not on this day!  On this lovely NYE, I put on my new pullover and ran 4 miles around the Mystic and was home in time to shower, change and have some traditional NYE fun.

That NYE fun meant no running on New Years Day, unfortunately.  Ok, ok so not really.  I did sleep in on January 1 and went for a lovely brunch with my boyfriend and his family.  I could have squeezed a run in, but knowing what an insane weekend it was going to be with work and social obligations, I knew I was going to have to do my long run on Friday so I gave myself Thursday off.

One thing I can say for certain about my training that has gone really well is that I have not missed a long run.  I am inching up my mileage every week and getting ready for the Boston Prep 16 Miler on January 25 in Derry New Hampshire.  Yes, you heard me right.  I made the brilliant decision to run a 16 miler prep race...in New Hampshire...IN JANUARY.  Uhg.  Seemed like a good idea at the time.  I have never run more than 13.1 miles in my life, so I knew this was going to be a tough race, but I am the kind of person who does better with milestones to work toward so when I signed up I thought, "Hey, by the end of January this should be a piece of cake."  What a dummy.

Anyway, I tackled an 11 mile long run on Friday and it was AWESOME.  I remembered to bring water and fuel this time - small victories - and it made an incredible difference in how I felt the entire time.  I repeated my Minuteman Bikeway route this week because I didn't spend enough time mapping out an alternate route in advance, but it worked out perfectly.  It was about 40 degrees outside with sunshine peeking out through the clouds regularly.  I waffled about whether or not to bring gloves or a hat, but since I wasn't wearing anything with pockets and knew I'd be stuck carrying anything I needed to take off, I decided to skip them both and it was the right decision.

One hard thing about this blog is trying to keep it visually interesting. There are no leaves on trees, I run the same routes a lot and I kind of hate stopping mid-run to take photos (pause watch, pause RunKeeper, take phone out of armband, take photos, put phone back in armband, resume watch, resume RunKeeper).  I'm always thinking to myself, "Ok, where should I "pull over" and take a photo or two so people don't get bored."  This time, I stopped at Spy Pond in Arlington to

snap a few photos. The episode of This American Life I had been listening to for the first half of my run had ended, so it was a good point to mess with all of my technology at once.  I took a few neat snapshots of Spy Pond, queued up another TAL and headed back on the trail. 

Knock on Wood

You guys.  I think I may have turned a corner here. This long run was by far and away the easiest feeling run since I ran my half marathon in October.  I felt great - not so much as a twinge of discomfort in my knee - and by the time I hit 11 miles I felt like I could still do another 1 or 2 miles.  It's also one of the first time I woke up the morning after a long run and didn't hurt all over.  I am hoping this is a sign of good things to come.  This weekend, I am going crazy and skipping the 12 mile mark and going straight to 13.  I think I am ready physically and mentally to go back to that magical number!