A New Day

I woke up in a great mood this morning!!! Is it because Accuweather now predicts a slightly warmer temperature for my half on Saturday? Doubtful, as it also predicts rain and 22 mph winds with gusts to 37 mph. Weather.com predicts 37 degrees and rain and snow but only 14 mph winds. (It never fails to amaze me how Weather.com and Accuweather.com can have such drastically different forecasts.) I haven’t decided which one to believe yet but I’m starting to believe this likely won’t be a PR race for me. With that in mind, I am determined to have a blast! I’ve realized my attitude lately has been less than stellar and I’ve given myself an adjustment!

I’m deciding today on how I want to run throughout the week. I generally never follow a training plan the week before a race because I believe I am smarter than the writers of these plans and therefore my plan is better. Not so much, but I do seem to have found what works for me and I don’t think I want to mess with it. So, my week looks like this. Sunday-10 @ 8:25, Monday- 6 w/3@7:15, Tuesday- 4@7:30-7:40, Wednesday- 3 @7:30, Thursday,2.2@7:10, Friday-off, Saturday-race. These paces are approximate and I refuse to stress over them.

I am also currently looking at my potential race calendar for next year. Ideally, I need a half marathon sometime in March, 3-4 weeks out from Boston. Doesn’t look like I will find one in Minnesota so I may be taking a quick weekend flight somewhere or worst case setting up a mock race and racing my sister who runs about the same pace as me. (I don’t like this latter idea as for whatever reason it does not motivate me to race her). So, I have Boston in April, and the Fargo half marathon on May 22nd, 2010. Now, here’s where the decisions come into play. At one time, I said I would only ever complete one marathon and with the goal only to finish. As I started training I changed this to completing only one marathon but qualifying for Boston to say that I did it. This soon changed to completing 2 marathons and actually running Boston if I qualified. After qualifying , this changed to running a spring and fall marathon every year . Now, an opportunity has presented itself to me to run a June marathon (Grandma’s in Duluth, MN) with a team from my sisters company for charity. Logistics are not finalized and this is not a “for sure.” I am unsure that I am interested in running a June marathon as my big goal will again be my fall marathon next year. Another wrench is, I will be running the Twin Cities Marathon for sure. However, if my dad can get his training to 3:45 and decides to use TCM as his possible BQ I may run this with him and race another. This moves my projected 2 marathons a year to potentially 4. I really don’t like all these decisions so I am going to try to put them on hold for awhile and try not to obsess about them.

One huge burden off my shoulders is my trip plans for Boston. Trying to finalize hotel reservations, flights, etc. etc. was really stressing me out. Now, I would not classify myself as cheap; I like designer jeans and Coach purses as well as the next gal but I almost had a heart attack thinking about spending $400 a night at a hotel in downtown Boston near the finish line while my kids ate macaroni and cheese at home! We have hotel points from my husband’s traveling but I couldn’t justify using them either as I could stay 20 nights on points for the price of one in Boston. I know there are cheaper hotels and one could stay in the suburbs which is where I first looked but I also wanted to experience downtown. I actually considered renewing my wedding vows to justify this trip..lol! Anyway, yesterday I finally allowed myself to splurge and got this taken care of once and for all. I’m sure my memories will be well worth the cost and maybe add a little motivation for me to do better!