Training for Boston

"How's your training going for Boston?"

It's a question I've been asked lately on a regular basis. But here's the problem: I'm not really training. Or, at least I don't feel like I'm in training. Sure, I've been trying to get those long runs in every Saturday. And I say trying because there have been more than a few long run days that I've just bagged it after about half the suggested mileage. It can be pretty hard to be disciplined enough to get in a long run when it's -2 degrees outside with a windchill of -18 degrees. But it's either that or the treadmill, and I don't know what's worse.

I'm coming off a 17 miler this weekend (thanks, BC!) and I was just looking at the program and I'm off a week...should've done 18 miles this weekend. OK, not like that one mile is going to break the bank, but it does hit me mentally a little. So does the fact that I haven't been running hills. Someone just asked me that during the run this weekend, so now I have a little paranoia going on. Not only am I not putting in the necessary miles to have a strong marathon, I'm not training for the course! Uh oh, am I setting myself up for disaster?

Did I also mention I'm not really running during the week? I've been swimming a lot. Great, I'm working on the one thing that I probably can't improve so much. I went through the stroke analysis clinic, so I've been trying to make my improvements on that (the second session was this weekend, I'll talk about that later), but I'm thinking I probably shouldn't be neglecting the other parts of my training. Yeah, I think it's time I put together a training plan...yeah, since I have a half ironman coming up in 8 weeks! Not worried about that swim, though!

I think I fall into a funk every year around this time. December/January seems to be my time off. That gets me all fired up and thinking about goals and toward the middle of January I start getting back to a plan. But here we are, about a month later and it feels like races are so far off, it's easy to lose sight of what I'm trying to accomplish. And once the weather starts to improve, then I seem to get some of that motivation back. It will be so nice to run outside again with only ONE layer of clothing instead of the 2 (sometimes 3!) layers I currently wear to keep warm.

Just a few more weeks...we change the clocks, it will be lighter out and I will start to train for Boston!