80 Miles!! and LAST 22 :)

This will be quick as I am trying to spend the day with my girls!

finished off this peak week with 80 miles! woohoo!!
 and 4 workouts:
Monday-16 progressive (last mile 6:35)
Wednesday- 10 x 800s
Friday - 20 x 200's
Sunday - 22 on Hilly course!


I feel amazing and super stoked for whats to come. Everything still feels so surreal! I have one more week before I start my 2wk taper. I feel strong, confident and ready to rock Boston.

I am no longer afraid of this course and after running a very hill course yesterday with  1000 ft of elevation gain and loss, I feel even more confident. Boston has more downhill than it does uphill:)
I have a great sense of peace within me about this marathon...I can't quite explain it but it feels really good. I just know it's going to be one of the BEST experiences of my LIFE!


Amanda and I rocked this run yesterday. Keep in mind, we are not trying to run it fast..We do our long runs at easy pace..we kept even effort on the uphills and let the downhills take us where they would:)
We kept reminding each other of our mantras, as if we were practicing for the big day:)

Amanda likes 'Find your strong' 
and I like 'I run this body'!

I think I got that from Mile Posts and it just stuck with me. That is something I can see myself yelling at myself those last 6 miles...." I RUN THIS BODY!!!" ...I don't care if you're tired and want to quit! IIIII run this body!  I tell you to run FAST and you run FAST! I tell you to keep going, you KEEP going! Mantras are SOOO Important! I hope you have yours ready to go Boston Girls!! (?)

Our overall pace was 8:00min flat! we felt SUPER about this!
our last 7 miles were all between 7:30 and 7:44 except one 7:59 and our last mile was 7:13:) we were just trying to hit close to marathon pace or a bit faster. I was amazed that these 7:30-7:44 paces didn't feel like that...this gives me confidence that I will be able to hit that 7:20-7:25 pace for Boston!

We felt so good about this run!, as you can see...... yes we are DORKS!

Amanda in her Ice bath....wait til you see the video of this ! freaking HILARIOUS! I just need to figure out how to upload it to Youtube!

I am looking forward to meeting some of you in Boston!

see you SOOOOOOON!!!

The workout I've been WAITING for!....20 x 200m's.......

I just had to do a quick post b/c I feel so good  (AND TIRED) about my workout today!

The workout was 20 x 200m repeats with 200m jog recoveries.

This is THE Workout that I have been waiting for. Mostly bc John told me months ago during one of our discussions about marathon training that this was one of  his FAVORITE 5K workouts for marathon training. When it comes to speed work, the shorter the sprint, the better for me. I LOVE speed. I love quick turn over. I've had people stop me on the track before and tell me I run like a gazelle lol. I do have a long stride when I sprint and it just feels SO darn good....I can't describe it, but it's a feeling I LOVE....and crave.

 I did the 16 x 200m workout 2wks ago and was tired by the end, so I wondered how this would go today.
when I woke up, it was foggy and  freezing! I decided to  post pone the workout til the afternoon when it was supposed to be 50 and sunny:) SO glad i did!!
I headed the NIKE EMPLOYEE store where I collected a nice little loot of summer running clothes along with a new pair of running sun glasses:)

I know, I totally look like Desi's twin don't I?;) don't be a hater. 

I have never ran in sunglasses but I started thinking that if it IS hot and sunny in Boston, I dont' want to wear a  hat...they make me hotter....so I bought these babies! and in the hot sun today and dripping sweat, they didn't budge! I'm thinking it was the purchase of the day for sure.

So, I put these suckers on and headed out and did a 2mile warm up, some drills and landed on the bouncy red track!!

here's how the repeats went: 

01. 0:38

02. 0:41

03. 0:41

04. 0:40

05. 0:41

06. 0:40

07. 0:39

08. 0:40

09. 0:39

10. 0:40

11. 0:41

12. 0:41

13. 0:41

14. 0:38

15. 0:40

16. 0:38

17. 0:36*

18. 0:36*

19. 0:36*

20. 0:38

My garmin says these were all between 4:30 and 5:30 pace:)

I still can't believe that I ran those last 5 that fast....I was NOT planning or expecting that....I seriously had an adrenaline rush for those 3 36's.......maybe it was the screaming high school kids cheering for me?....MILDLY EMBARASSING!

This workout was a Huge confidence booster for me. I felt strong and fast. 

After getting and absolutely wonderful, uplifting email from jenn after my  last post...I no longer feel scared or doubtful about Boston...

as she said:

"OK-first off scrap looking at Boston as a challenging course and start viewing it as a chance for you to FLY!!!"

And I feel like that's how I've been looking at it the last few days. I'm READY. I'm STRONG. I'm DETERMINED. I'm  COURAGEOUS. I BELIEVE in myself. I am FAST.....AND. I. AM. PREPARED. 

Thank you JENN!! That email really impacted me in a VERY POSITIVE way! xx

I taped up the Mcmillan Calculators prediction times for me based on my current 10K time to my mirror. 

It gives me a predicted marathon time of 3:12:20. I'm not saying I am going to run that but I circled it and wrote "Believe!" beside it:) It's kinda strange b/c before I even started training,I had the number 3:12 stuck in my head whenever John would ask me what I would LIKE to run at Boston:D

I also taped up Jenn's inspiring, motivating email beside my bed!

NO MORE negative voices.......only happy, positive ones:)

Anyway....I am feeling happy and BLESSED!

I have found great companionship in wonderful beautiful women around me....and some WONDERFUL running partners....speaking of which, I HAD to share this adorable picture of Amanda! This is from the race photos last week.....when they asked Amanda who she wanted to dedicate her win to, she pointed to me:) it was REALLY cute and sweet! I think she just said that b/c I was the sorry butt out there with her in the freezing cold! ha ha...

 I think they caught her cute spunky personality just PERFECTLY in this pic below! when I think of Amanda...this would be the visual I get in my head. This girl is SO easy to Love! 

And then there's me....i was laughing and making a joke b/c when they asked me I was like "well..if  I don't dedicate it to Amanda I look like  a bad friend don't I? Lol..and if I DO, I just look like I'm copying her! " ha ha... lose-lose situation for me! 

it was all in good fun:)

Well, I have to get up for a wedding at 6am tomorrow...so off to bed...these legs are sleepy after all those 200's:):) 

peace out friends!

Run hard tomorrow. Make it count!

already Week 12....Will Boston Kick MY butt too?? Normal Nervousness or just Naive?

I know I probably don't have any friends left on here b/c I am so lame these days...I did just try to catch up on some blogs and post some comments....my poor hubby is gone to Canada again to work on his mom's estate. poor guy is so tired and so stressed out.......but this is pretty much the only time I get to catch up on blogs so here it goes!....

I recovered from those stupid stones....I call them stupid b/c that's what I think of them! I hope they know they are NOT welcome around here for at least another 4-5wks.
I went to bed at midnight on saturday after my last post....Steve brought me home some anti-nausea medicine and he had to wake me up at 4pm the NEXT DAY!
16hrs straight? is that normal? I missed an entire day....An ENTIRE DAY! I can't imagine what it's like for people who go into a coma and then wake up weeks or months later? strange.

Luckily, they did not knock me down as hard this time b/c I had the oxycodone ready and wasn't pumped full of morophine so Monday morning I headed out for my 16 mile progression run with Steph...


it ended up being more like a tempo run...we got to talking about how we used to do our long runs with more marathon paced miles and now we do them slow and I think it got us a bit revved up...
here's how it went: we didn't PLAN on running it this way....the quicker miles just sort of happened and didn't really effect me til the last 2 or 3 of them...

Mile 1: 8:22
mile 2: 8:19
mile 3: 8:00
mile 4: 8:18
mile 5: 8:22
I forgot to start  my watch here after a quick porta pottie break but steph caught miles 6 and 7..
mile 6: 7:40 * approx..somewhere between 7:30 and 7:45
mile 7: 7:40 * approx..somewhere between 7:30 and 7:45
mile 8: 7:36
mile 9: 7:24
mile 10: 7:41
mile 11: 7:35
mile 12: 7:59 (took a recovery mile)
mile 13: 7:48
mile 14: 7:45
mile 15: 7:18
mile 16: 6:35* I don't know where this energy comes from on some of my long runs but I love it when it does!

so I had 10 good tempo miles in there and it felt FANTASTIC!!
One thing i have noticed about this marathon training is that I havne't had any workouts that have left Me sore.
I have felt "tired" but not any soreness...it's wonderful!
Same for this run...didn't have any soreness, got up and ran 10 miles the next morning and felt great.

Today I had to work out of town at 7am so I was up at 5...this lead to a nap afterwork and then my
10 x 800m workout on the TM...I don't normally do workouts on the TM but I am just getting sick of the rain and decided to screw the idea of 10 miles in the pissing rain on the track.

I did my repeats at:
3:12
3;13
3:14
3:15
3;14
3:12
3:13
3:15
3:13
3:11
This was WAY harder for me on the TM....I have said before...I can't run fast on the TM...and Im in the last week of my cycle when I always feel lethargic so I was just glad I DID IT...I didn't honestly care what my times were.....


Tomorrow is easy/recovery day and then Friday is 20 x 200m!!! I can't wait for that one!!

****************************************************************************

Okay...so not everything is all rainbows in sunshine over here....I'm gonna tell you  a secret......I normally pride myself on being pretty strong and tough mentally. I believe in myself and I usually set realistic goals for my races that I almost always hit. I am good at guaging from my workouts what I think I am capable of when I combine it with a taper and race day Magic*:).....

Until this past week,I have felt confident about my marathon plan. I don't have a DEFINITE plan yet but John and I have thrown around the idea of 7:20ish for my MP.

Here's my dealio:
If I was running Eugene (which was plan B if I didn't select Boston), I would feel confident in saying that I think 100% I could run a 3:15 there....I really think I could do that...
BUT...yes here comes the BIG BUTT.......
I am feeling extremely inadequate about Boston!! I don't have many if any hills to run on my side of town, and even the wimpiest hills will take it out of me....
I have read some cool stuff lately about strategy on the Boston course that I plan to MEMORIZE and follow to a T as to not shoot my self in the foot and burn out the last 6 miles but STILL, I am feeling like
"What the crap am I thinking? I can't run 7:20-7:30 pace on the BOSTON COURSE! are you nuts?"
I have heard from so many people that Boston kicked their butt, but I also know that I have heard from many good resources HOW boston will kick your butt and how to avoid it...so maybe I will get lucky? or is that being Naive? what makes me any better than all of you who struggled with Boston? I have all kinds of voices in my head telling me I'm just not good enough for what I want to try for....


What would you do? do I adjust my plan and lower my goals or tell this ugly voice in my head to take a hike and press on believing that I will be capable of more than I think i am right now?.....


p.s I am not going into race day "just seeing how it feels" ...cause if I do that I will stay "comfortable' the whole time...I am the type of person that NEEDS  a goal to motivate myself.

Lucky? 5K Race recap (and photos)...and...they have RETURNED!:(:(

I did most of my processing over the phone with Amanda....so we'll see how open and honest I can get here...I might be all out of thoughts/emotions and I'm on oxycodone again so my mind is  a bit fuzzy....I hurt and I feel like I could vomit at any given moment.
I am home alone though and kids are sleeping so I might as well write this as my hubby hates it when I blog and he's at work for the evening.

Lets start with a quick recap from this week:

Monday: Off. ( I ran my 22 miles with Amanda the day before. 8:06 average with last mile at 6:51:))
Tuesday: 10 miles easy
Wednesday: 5 x 1 mile repeats:  6:08, 6:15, 6:19, 6:17, 6:30
thursday: 12 easy(double day)
Friday: 10 easy (double day)
Saturday: 5K Luckeython race (8 total)

After my mile repeats I remembered that 5K's hurt...but I was confident I could at least break 20min. I was running the same course I ran the Turkeython on back in November before I even started training and ran a 20:10....so SURELY I could take off AT LEAST 10 seconds.

I woke up this morning and with my first pee..I felt that "twinge".....the twinge I felt when Ipassed my kidney stone 6wks ago.
I ignored it and moved on with my morning....on my way to the race, the sensation was growing. I DID think about possibly skipping the race...but when your mantra is:
 "You're not a quitter" .....well..you understand...makes it hard to walk away. Sweet Amanda kept asking if I was okay.....and I told her I was fine.

I knew the pain wouldnt' get worse til later but was sort of hoping it was just gonna go away and be a false alarm.

when I lined up at the start line, I talked to the girl beside me who had been doing strides beside me to feel out what she was trying to run....she said 6:40-6:50pace.....

The bell rang and off we went......The honest truth is, I felt something a bit "off" in my energy level from the first quarter mile...I looked down and what felt like 6:30 pace was 6:45 pace...I picked it up, since my first mile goal was 6:25.....but it felt much harder today than it normally does....just didn't have that "umph" in my stride.....

Mile 1: 6:32
I headed into mile 2 realizing I was already behind my average...I needed to average 6:25 or better to break 20min.

The course is VERY windey...ANNOYINGLY windey and lots of people to pass and weave in and out of...that was pretty annoying....the 10K'ers started before us so I was passing all sorts of groups and slower individuals...sometimes I had to jump onto the muddy grass if they weren't moving out of the way.
anyway...I FORGOT to look at my watch at mile 2, but it was just over 13min so I was off by atleast 10-15seconds....
Mile 2 was: 6:37
I told myself "this is your last mile....you have GOT to run this fast if you're going to break 20"....I looked down and for most of the mile I was running 6:10pace....Amanda and I passed eachother as she headed into her mile 4 and I headed into my last mile....we just "looked" at each other...that was about all I could do, gasping for air....
Mile 3: 6:15
I started to feel like it just wasn't going to happen today and sure enough when I crossed the finish line ...it read: 20:07..:(:(
My watch said 3.13mi (6:27 average which is a 20:03...but really...who cares?). I didn't do it. I just couldn't bring it today.

I still WON my race, which was great and I felt positive about the whole thing...I knew my body wasn't working properly today so I just let it roll off my back...as ANNOYING as it is......


During our cool down, my pain got quite intense...After 2 miles, I told Amanda I needed to get to my car and get home. I was supposed to go to a wedding and felt HORRIBLE that I had to call my bride and tell her I was in so much pain that I couldnt' make it:( Luckily Bri was doing her hair and told me she could do her makeup as well.
On the way home...I was starting to get chills and shake from the pain...when I got in the door, I immediately took an oxydodone and crawled into the bath.
I still couldn't believe I was passing another FREAKING KIDNEY STONE!

After about 20min...the oxycodone kicked in and I was feeling warm and fuzzy...and a bit woozy. I actually had my friend drive me downtown to the hotel to do my brides makeup...I felt SO BAD cancelling on her.I have an impeccable reputation that I just can't risk being ruined!
My husband picked me up after and on the way home, I hit the naseous phase...which is where I still am now. .....if there is a logn break here...it's bc i'm puking in the bathroom!! grrrrr

SO...WHERE DOES THIS LEAD ME TO???

-well...honestly...a lot of self doubt.....I don't have doubt about the race, I know I am in much better shape than what I ran today....but I have doubt about what all these setbacks and missed trainign is doing to my marathon:(
I am TRYING to stay positive.....b/c I KNOW that getting down will NOT make it better. not even a little bit! so let me rant and then I'll be over it and move on.

During this 11wks of training...I've been sick ...2 or 3 times? lost my MIL, and now had kidney stones twice!:( The fact of the matter is...it DOES affect my training.
will I be able to BRING IT on Race day April 16?

I guess I just have to Trust in God. Trust that he's got me this far..he'll get me there too.
I suppose more than anything I am just discouraged at Life today....but at the same time I feel like I should just shut my face and be thankful! So many people are suffering...have cancer, are dying or have HUGE life challenges....
Me? well this will pass in a few days and I will be hopefully be back on track. I will probably miss my 16mile progressive run Monday but what can ya do?:(

BAck to my OTHER Mantra I guess:....

" It is What it Is"....

well...I can't really bare this discomfort any longer....I'm going to go take more pain meds and hit the sack....

thanks for listening to me complain!

Here are some pics from the day!

 What I decided to race in. If the weather is decent in Boston,I plan to run in these shorts. 

They are the Lulu Lemon Speed shorts and are my VERY favorite shorts!

 going up to receive my award..A fleece blanket:)
( I am really only posting this pictures b/c I think my legs look good here-lol)

 Also, plan to race in these shoes. The Brooks Pure Flow. 

Best shoes I've ever owned. I actually even like them MORE than my launches.
Shocking, I know.

 Thanks Race director guy:)

 2 for 2! we both won our races again.....and yes we are accidentally wearing matching outfits lol. 

it's our new "Team Uniform":)

And our theme song is now "You got a friend in me" from Toy Story 3 lol...

Amanda started singing it to me on the phone tonight..ha ha....

So blessed by this woman...and Stephy too. Love them both times a million!

 Story behind this pic:

 I was sound asleep this afternoon, all drugged up when I hear a little voice from behind me at my bed waking me up, saying "mommy, here you go mommy"....

I turned around to this: apple juice, a doughnut and 2 mini blueberry muffins.
Not gonna lie...I cried. 

what a sweet little ANGEL from Heaven. she is FOUR and her dad and sister were at the park which means she did this all on her OWN! I love you sweet mooshy girl.

I got Steve to take this of us cuddling in my bed when he got back. 

How can you not count your blessings when you wake up to that sweet face trying to take care of you? 

Keep smiling friends....

xxx



Week 10 Boston training Recap:

I am SO sorry I have not been commenting...I've been trying to read snipits here and there and even resorted to asking Amanda and Stephanie on runs what is going on on all your blogs!!
Last week I had  a bridal show, worked every night and had to do a project for Womens conference at church...oh and fit in all my runs. sigh...I'm afraid It might be a few more weeks before I get caught up on everything. forgive me.

My project for womens' conference, though overwhelming at the time, was a great project and i'm glad I got to do it!
In our church we have a document called "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" and I was asked to use Photos of my family and put them to the words of the Proclamation. I decided to make it like a scrap book and plan to laminate and bind all the pages together this week so the girls have it as abook to look at and read  at church:)
here are pictures of the pages...it is quite a treasure for me to have now that it's done:)

(click on photos to enlarge and see writing)

Some other fun stuff.....My friend Joy was going to the Ballet with her husband this past weekend so she asked if I would do her hair/makeup...it was fun! I snapped a before/after on my phone and took some pics of her hair! I love messy loose up-do's:)

 Okay back to running stuff:


So...after my 10K last saturday, I ran an easy 7 miles with Amanda on Sunday morning...she slept over Saturday night and it was SO much fun!!
 we had a great dinner and then fell asleep laughing our butts off...I can't even remember at what....oh wait...I think I was trying to role play a converstion with Amanda and it just turned into a barrel of laughs. I love that girl. Little Miss Runninghood is a fun slumber party partner;)

I finished week 9 with 75 miles!!!! I was pretty excited. I am feeling REALLY good and body is adjusting nicely to the higher mileage and workouts.

Onto Week 10: 
Monday- 15 miles  (8:22 pace) with Steph. legs were tired from the 10K day saturday still.

Tueday: 9.5 mile double day for recovery

Wednesday: 12 miles total: 10 x 800m. I hate 800's and was nervous about doing 10, but it was a BEAUTIFUL day which made it much easier. I was given explicit instructions to run between 3:12-3:15.
here's how it went: 3:16, 3:16, 3:10, 3;12, 3:10, 3:11, 3;14, 3:13, 3;12, 3:08
felt great and realized I don't hate 800's when i'm running them at a moderate pace:)

Thursday: 13.5 miles (10.3miles -8:26 pace-with steph in the morning and 3.2 in the evening)

Friday:  16 x 200m (7miles total). I was supposed to do these at 42-45, but it was just too slow for my body and my natural stride. Most of them were 40's but I fought to slow down, which was incredibly hard and get in a few 41's and 2 42's. luckily John wasn't mad at me:)

Saturday: Rest (b/c I had to do 22 the next day)

Sunday: 22 miles (8:06pace). last mile at 6:50. Felt pretty amazing to finish so strong after 22 miles.

Total for week 10: 79 miles!!!!!!


Great run with Amanda. I would normally have done that 22 today but my kids are sick and I would have had no one to watch them today so that's why I did it yesterday. it was so nice to run with a great friend for 3hrs. I felt very blessed. we talked about running, about Boston and about parenting.

I can't believe I only have 2 long runs left ....an 18 and another 22 and then the Taper begins!! CRAZY!!

this week I have  mile repeats and then a 5K race on Saturday! plan to break 20. so we'll see!
I also have to get my taxes ready, do 2 trial runs for brides and a wedding after my 5K on saturday...No rest for the weary!

I am looking SO forward to 5 days alone in Boston with no kids! going to be a very nice VACATION!!! WOOHOOO!!

hope you are all doing well.
is anyone going to plan a blogger meet up lunch in Boston? I am not the planning type:)

Champoeg 10K RACE RECAP

I am cheating. I have had a very busy crazy week. no time to write, no time to read:(

I'm SORRY:(:(

I wrote a race recap of my race for the Oregon Live Blog as part of the Oregonian Online so you can read my quick recap here!!!

RACE RECAP

be back next week hopefully!!!

off to run 16 x 200's this morning!!:)

2 PR's in 2 Weeks......ummm....I think that equals pretty friggin fabulous day!

Today I won my first race!
Champoeg 10K
 40:59!!!!
all I can say is sorry to the guy in front of me who stopped right at the finish line..dude..I wasn't gonna let that 1 second steal my glory! I pretty much ran him over, lol. but really? Move out of the WAY! ha!

Here's a few pics from the day....recap later...a nap is screaming my name....

I ended up wearing these shorts..but long sleeve shirt instead b/c I didn't have time to change after my warm up!

learning experience: These shorts are NOT compression...I felt like My butt was jiggling all over the place! I'm sure the guys behind me got a show! LOL

Billy, the race director, AND friend! comped me in on a sold out race! thanks Billy!!

 Pre Race warm up with my girl!

Accepting my award for 1st place!! woohoo!!

It was so weird to be the "Fast girl" today...everyone was SO nice...

when I was in the bathroom stall 2 ladies were talking about me and when I came out

they awkwardly said, "oh, it's you!" lol...like I was famous, it was half funny, half embarassing. ...

and 40:59 isn't EVEN THAT FAST! ha ha ha...

Amanda and I with our awards:) Amanda won the 30K!

today was just a a GREAT GREAT day...I'm gonna go savor in it a while longer before the day is over....

peace out friends!



the 20 Mile run from Hell and my LAST Month of training before the taper....and looking back to last year....coming full circle:)

So today was the 20 miler from hell.
i don't skip out on runs due to crappy weather very often...I think i'm pretty darn tough, I may whine about it, but i'll still do it...but today was just ridiculous!
It made it sting a bit more knowing Monday was sunny and clear but I couldn't do it then b/c of sick kids...so it got moved today and what did I get today? Well...let me tell you!....

-Snow
-Freezing rain
-Hail
-HARD winds
-borderline frostbite on my fingers
-SIDEWAYS freezing rain
-misery:)
Yup....that about sums it up.
Nothing much more to say. I can stand alot of weather elements but freezing cold headwinds combined with sideways rain beating against me is NOT one of them.
Nevertheless,it got done. PRAISE GOD.

I'm not gonna lie, when My coach told me today that the Boston marathon can have anything from Snow to 95 degree weather, it freaked me out. i am a bit traumatized from the 80 degree heat that ruined my race last year so i'm literally BEGGING God for no extreme weather in Boston.

My 20 miler was super easy pace...I actually never even looked at my mile splits til mile 17 and then picked it up the last few....last 2 miles were 7:32 and 7;16. 
The 20 mile average pace was 8:08 which was way faster than how it felt. I was hoping for more like 8:30's which is what I thought I was running.


SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO....today I picked up MY LAST training schedule before my 2wk taper:) it takes me to the end of march and I felt really emotional looking at it and realizing how close I am to running this HUGE Race. Not just b/c of the race itself but what it represents in my life and all the hard work I've put in. It feels like a everything is coming full circle.

I ran my first marathon last year and the results were very devastating. Everything that could go wrong, did: Heat, dehydration, getting super ill the week before, and a stress fracture in my fibula......I had to take 8wks off completely to heal and have been slowly but surely working my wy back:)
Looking back on my first marathon 10 months ago it is  a good reminder of how I am doing things SO MUCH differently this time and how I will yield much better results:)

Mile 22, right after Steve took this picture I felt a SHARP pain in my leg. you can see the tape I had on my lower right leg...that is where my stress fracture occurred. I had bad pain starting 5 days earlier but just thought it was somethign I could run through. wrong!

Mile 25, in SO much pain....could hardly run 9min pace at this point....

Mile 26....barely holding on.....

Crossing the finish line....more than 15 min over my goal time...devastated.

eventually I got over it (temporarily) and collected my cup for being 7th female and 3rd in my AG.

but not a really great day.

Boston will be MUCH different! b/c of the following reasons:

1. I am not overtrained. I am not doing my 20 mile runs at 7:30 pace this time.

 I am running higher mileage and yet doing easier less strenuous workouts

2. I will not put any EXPECTATIONS on myself. Regardless of the outcome, I will ENJOY the experience

3. I will arrive Healthy and UN-Injured:):)

So...a sneak peak at what I have in my last 4wks of training before my 2wk taper starts:

- two 22 milers:)
- a 15 easy and a 16 mile progression
- 16 x 200m
-20 x 200m
-16 x 400m
- two 10 x 800m
 -5 x 1mile repeats
-6 x 1 mile repeats
- two more 75 mile weeks:)
 and a 5K race:)

I am SOOOOOOOOOOO excited!!
I have loved this training so much. I love that John combines 5K track workouts with higher mileage and i'm super stoked to see what it produces on April 16th.
I am STILL nervous whenever I look at the elevation profiles from people's garmins on Boston...so hilly:/ but I'm trying not to think about it too much.
I realize that my 3:15 might not be at Boston and I'm totally okay with that!...I just want to enjoy the experience, the atmosphere...the RACE! I think it is more realistic to try for a 3:15 on  a flat fast course so I can always do that later this year:)

7 weeks til I get to run my GUTS out! I can't WAIT!!!!!!!!!!