The best thing about keeping a blog, and keeping a good training log is being able to go back and look at how far you’ve come. I took some time this morning, since i’m tapering and have NOTHING else to do right now, to go back and reflect on the highs and lows of my winter training so far .. with one week left until the first marathon of the spring, I think there is a ton of value in looking back …

So 13 weeks ago I set out on a 14 week training plan .. that was just before Christmas-time (wow, thats amazing).. it didn’t appear to be a good sign for what was to come in the weeks to come because we got snow the Saturday before I started the training, not to mention I started the training on the first day of winter. Things were uneventful as I started building the mileage until the frigid temperatures around new years (3 degree wind chill). Seemed like that was the start of the real cold weather as I page through my running log .. but I kept pushing despite the weather ..

I fought some insomnia for the first part of January until the end of January if I recall properly. I don’t think it had a huge impact on my training, but it might have. Thankfully it went away on its own.. (its funny how that happens, it just comes appears, then goes away)

Towards the end of January, I got in my first 20-miler of the season, and it was a good one (in long run terms). The miles started adding up at this point .. it always seems that way once you start doing 20’s on a weekly basis. Much did I know at that point, both the weather and my training was going to turn sour for the next couple weeks .. including the absolute coldest long run of the season at the end of January (zero wind chill) and then running in a blizzard and bonking out on my long run the next week. The following week then, we got yet another major snowstorm which limited my training … I was starting to struggle by this point.

All these events caused me to take a good hard look at myself and dig down to find some motivation. I really do think this was the turning point of my training this time around. I recall really struggling to get up in the morning, and struggling to push myself because there were a 100 reasons NOT to get out and train, most were weather related (tired of the cold, the snow, etc). It was important to overcome this road block because this was the same point that I fell apart 3 years ago when training for the Ocean Drive marathon.. I WAS NOT going to let that happen again …

By taking the “no excuses” attitude towards training, I was able to kick it up a notch .. and despite a pretty decent wipe-out which left me pretty bloody a week later, my new attitude towards training showed through because I continued to run 10 more miles on a ripped up knee .. no excuses, right? (btw, that knee has healed up pretty good now).

All of that hard work started to pay off a few weeks later when the weather started to not be too bad. The snow started to melt and although it could still be classified as cold outside .. it was NOTHING like back in January and February.

That about brings me to where I am now .. in the taper .. The weather has been spectacular over the last few days although its not expected to last into next weekend. I’m trying not to obsess over the long range forecast, but I can’t seem to take my mind off of it .. I get a little envious of others who are blogging or tweeting about their long runs, I miss my miles, but know that I need the rest. I looked back at my terrible race last year (lehigh valley health network marathon) and realized that I didn’t taper enough and ended up going out tired. I just never seemed to let go of the miles. I’m following the same taper plan as I did for Baltimore and for Philly .. so I think i’ll be better off since I had good races both times when using that method.

So what now? Well, its rest time and in that rest time, its time to start thinking about the post-Ocean Drive marathon training and start planning for the Flying Pig which is just a few shorts weeks off. I’m not getting too into it yet, because its one marathon at a time, but its still in my head.

Just reading through this post, I enjoyed taking a stroll through the last 3 months of my training .. after reading through it, I’ve convinced myself that I should have no fear that I can get through the marathon next weekend .. I really have come a long way.