I was surprised to see that it had been more than a week since I last posted. I know I was sidetracked last week, but I thought I'd gotten at least one in there.
Anyway, it is insanely cold outside right now. The high was 9 degrees, and the windchill brought it down to the -15 - -20 range. I had to cover my face with my hands to walk from the gym to work this morning. Unbelievable! This is officially the coldest day of my life up to this point. It was an especially rude reminder that it's still winter after yesterday when it got up to the high 30s, and almost all the accumulated snow melted.
Running has been going. I haven't done any specific workouts lately. Mostly just checking it off the list. But I have made a couple important decisions about the upcoming running year.
The first is that I'm going to train for the Mad City marathon this spring. I'd been going back and forth about doing a spring marathon, and if I did, which one, but it seems like the right decision. It gives me the most time to train, the most time after ARVO to get over being sick if I come back with something, and I don't have to travel for it. There's no benefit to any other spring marathon that outweighs the benefits of staying in Madison. Plus, hopefully I'll have friends here to cheer me on.
The second decision is to continue a triathlon-style training program, but to do the Your Ultimate Marathon Training program from Runners World rather than do the FIRST workouts. The FIRST workouts are... intense. And I'm sure if I could do them, I'd be in a great place to run a marathon. But I'm afraid that I'll either get hurt or get frustrated not being able to hit the paces prescribed and stop speed training. I had good results with the RW 1/2 marathon training program, and I think whatever I'll be missing out on in intensity, I'll make up for in enjoying the training process. Part of enjoying the process for me is feeling successful after a hard workout. I'm just not sure I'd ever have that feeling on FIRST, but I know I will with YUMTP.
This week is kind of weird for working out because there's no tri-club spinning. So I'm just playing it by ear. The same will be especially true next week while we are traveling and visiting family. It will be my goal to workout as much as I can, but not feel guilty when I can't.
Well, it's about time to steel myself for a frigid wait for the bus.
