Warm Enough, But Not Too Hot

I have been meaning to sit and write out a blog for over a month now, and since I am procrastinating on heading out for my 13 mile training run I figure now is a great time to catch back up!  I finished out 2012 with 850 miles of running which I was pretty happy with considering I never set a specific goal.  I am now onto my 4th year as a runner and I am finding it harder and harder to remember a time in my life where I DIDN'T run several times each week.  It is just something I do now without really thinking about it. 

I was out on my long run last weekend and I got to thinking about how normal it is for me to go on a long run every weekend- and then I thought about how most people think that is far from normal.  How running 10 or more miles on a Saturday morning in 27 degree temperatures is actually weird to some people.  But it has been part of my week for several years now and it seems perfectly normal to me as I sit and ponder how many layers I need to be 'warm enough, but not too hot' as I head out the door.  

So what are my grand plans moving forward into 2013?  Well, currently I am signed up for the St. Paddy's Day  half marathon in Tacoma on March 16th.  Last year I placed 4th in my age group in the 5K after training really hard using the Run Less, Run Faster training guide.  It also was freezing cold and slightly snowing on race day- hope that doesn't happen again!  I love this race because the start line is about 10 minutes from my house and it has a fun holiday theme.  Will and Alyssa are signed up to run the half with me and I know there are a few other friends signed up as well for the other distances.  Are you signed up?  Tell me, tell me!  Thinking about running your first 5K?  This is a great one, in fact it was my first race EVER way back in 2010. 



Jaime, me and Cynthia
St Paddy Day 5K run 2010- our first race ever! 
And there was sunshine- hoping for that again this year!

I may have also decided to attempt the M word again.  Yes, it is true I signed up for the Tacoma City Marathon on May 5th.  AAAAHHHHH!!!  It will be nearly 2 years between marathons for me.  I think I am ready.  Well, not yet- but on May 5th I had better be ready!  I decided to use the Finish It plan from the book Train Like a Mother.  You can buy your own copy HERE from Amazon or check out some information from Sarah and Dimity HERE at Another Mother Runner.  I just love these two ladies, I have met them a couple of times and they are just amazing.  I listen to their podcast when I run on the treadmill and I own both of their books, I follow them on twitter and on facebook- they just make me laugh and offer tons of encouragement and advice to their fellow mother runners.  Ok, enough about my complete obsession with Sarah and Dimity...moving on...

The book I am using for my training plan

The training plan I am following is 20 weeks long.  I didn't realize that until I did the math but I was a couple of weeks behind so I jumped in at week 3 of the training plan and am currently finishing up week 6.  It has been going really well so far, it took me a couple of weeks to really build up my training base again since I really slacked off the last couple of months.  But I am going to hit a 100 mile month for January and I feel great!  I am hoping to blog 2-3 times a week so that I can look back on my marathon training and see what I did and how my training was.  Anyone else out there training for a marathon?  Which one?  I decided on a local one this time because it is so much easier (and cheaper) in many ways.  I just hope that on race day I am not bored running the same roads that I trained on.  I will find out soon enough!

This is what my workout plan looks like. 
I am about to head out the door for the 13 mile long run in week 6. 

I will do a training update on Monday- I better hit the pavement before I lose my motivation.  The good news is that it is 42 degrees out and not raining- but that could change any second.  So I need to go figure out my layers with the ultimate goal of being warm enough, but not too hot.  Happy running!