Going back to my marathon roots...part II...Plus an Ironman

So…..yes, I have decided to do a marathon next March! I have chosen to train for the DC Rock n Roll marathon which will be on March 16, 2013. My dad will also be racing! Usually, we do the Cherry Blossom 10 miler but my dad said he’d come out for the marathon instead. The only bad part for my dad is training for a marathon through the Iowa winter. Right now as I write this, the state of Iowa is getting ready for their first blizzard of the year. Last year, Iowa actually had a pretty mild winter. I’m hoping for my dad’s sake that the rest of the winter won’t be like the next two days. At least I will have a white Christmas when I’m back! I am happy about that, however, I’m not looking forward to leaving the 50-60 degree weather we’ve been having in DC this week. I’ve already decided that I have to get my long run in here tomorrow before I hop on a plane to Iowa Friday morning. It’s going to be in the single digits there. Ouch! My lungs would definitely not be up for running outside in that! Looks like my dad and I will be spending some time at the Y. Which is fine, but I can’t stand doing more than 10 miles on a treadmill so I’m hoping the weekend after Christmas it at least warms up to the 30’s so we can get outside. I think I have become a little bit of a wimp with training outside in the winter elements since I left Iowa. Now, getting on a bike if it’s below 50 degrees doesn’t appeal to me at all! I remember training for Boston one winter when I lived in Iowa and had to get a 20-miler in one day with my friend Dave Mable. We ran all 20 miles in the cold, wet snow during the beginning of a blizzard! Now, that was roughing it!

I had to think hard about whether or not I wanted to train for a marathon this winter. The main thing I had to think about was whether or not training for a marathon would be a good idea to start off the long season I have ahead of me in 2013. My big news is that I have signed up to do Ironman Mont Tremblant which is in August! Yes, another Ironman….but, after 2013, I may have to retire the distance and stick with the half distance and under. I loooove racing the IM distance b/c my body loves the endurance. Ironman training just takes up a ton of time, energy and requires a TON of life balance. I will be working very hard on the life balance part by doing a lot more workouts in the early am and getting the right amount of sleep. This will allow more time with friends, family and of course everything else that goes on in life. This IM will be the main race I will focus on for next year because I really want to try to get my time down some more. If this is going to be my last IM year, I’m going hard and pushing my body to the limits. So, I admit, starting out with a marathon in the spring is a bit risky. Why? Well, several reasons which include:

· Burnout when I get into my hard Ironman training.

· More risk of injury.

· Training through the winter…which won’t be as bad in DC if we don’t have several snowmageddons.

I think I’ll be ok though and this is why. I’m still only going to be running 3-4 times a week. All my running will have a purpose and there will be no junk miles! During the week I’ll have two days that will include either, track, hill or tempo work, a day of a semi-longer run in the middle of the week and then the long run on the weekend. So, it will basically be like the training I do for an IM and just doing more running at the beginning of the season than I normally do. If I do start to feel any type of injury flare up, I will back off and make a decision on whether or not to continue with the marathon training, or drop to the half. I will not jeopardize my whole triathlon racing season for the marathon and will be smart about it. Being smart will include doing my strength training exercises and stretching that my coach and chiropractor have told me to do, swimming a lot (good for recovery) and using that damn foam roller all the time! (Oh hurts so good!) I’m really looking forward to running a marathon again and having my dad come out and run it as well!

In the meantime, I have taken some time off from structured workouts. I just started getting back into a training schedule this month. It has been nice and exactly what I needed in order to be motivated and ready to go for 2013! My mom and I took a trip to NYC the week of Thanksgiving and had a blast. Here are some pics from our trip.

In front of Rockefellor Center

Empire State Building

Off season is a great time to catch up with friends you haven't seen for awhile and to not worry so much about diet, what workouts to get in and just have a blast during the holidays! You can even incorporate exercise with fun group workouts. Last weekend I did a fun 10 mile run with High Cloud. We passed out winter hats to the homeless and stopped along our route to get some pictures in front of the White House and Capitol Christmas trees. You have to have fun while training and I’m definitely incorporating a lot of group workouts into my training regime next year. This shouldn't be a problem since there are about 50 DC Tri Club members training for Ironman Lake Placid and 10 or so training for IM Mont Tremblant. Fun times to be had!

I wish everyone a very happy holiday season!!