Friday, April 29, 2011

Winding Down and Gearing Up



The last few weeks have been action packed, involving a lot of writing, running, and manual labor. I finished another graduate school course, and I'll wrap up another in a couple weeks, I did some home improvement projects, and the running is picking up. With one grad class done and the other winding down, I'm feeling a little less overwhelmed. I even made time to get a massage this week after a ten-mile run, although it was impromptu and happened at 8:30 PM, on a school night, no less.

I went to Massage Envy, which I highly recommend because they are open late and were willing to see me an hour after I called. I wasn't sure how I felt about getting a massage at a chain establishment rather than an independent spa, but I was pleasantly surprised and felt awesome afterward. The best part was that it was only $49. I'm going to have to fight the urge to go back after my next long run, because it was really, really good way to speed up recovery time.

In addition to stretching longer and longer now, my runs are becoming even more frequent. I'm running five days a week, which means that my strength training has been reduced to once per week, according to my Nike+ coach program. I found that when I lowered my strength training to this level when I trained for the half in the fall, I got weaker and actually did not perform as well on my long runs, so on the days I do 'short' (3 mile) runs, I'm making an effort to squeeze in at least one additional strength routine each week.

On Tuesday, I'll do one of just a handful of runs that are nearly as long as the half. These twelve milers represent the peak of my training, and although I've done this all before, it still makes me nervous... and excited. Can I do it? Will I avoid injuries? I'm so close to accomplishing this goal that I don't want to let anything get in the way. So I'm hanging in and keeping up with my program, and before I know it, I'll be on my way up to Boston to run the race.

Hope, Love, Run,
Marathon Girl

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