29 weeks to go

Well, had planned to be posting more often than this, MAN life is busy!  I managed through the first month pretty well, given the lax couple of months since Augusta.  Did better than last year but still not as good as I had hoped in keeping committed after the final race of the season.  So January was tough as I got right back in the thick of it.  Was very glad to get to my recovery week.  LOVE recovery week!  Last week was my biggest week ever yet at 14.5 hrs planned which was kinda intimidating, and I only made it to 12.5.  Did all but one workout last week.  In fact I've only missed 5 workouts in the last 5 weeks.  Not bad, though will do better.  Counts so far:

Bike - 22 hours, all indoors, but somewhere around 390 miles
Swim - 12 hrs, 25000 yds
Run - 14 hrs, 93 miles
Strength - 8 hrs, countless lunges, squats, pushups, bench dips!

So I've got this countdown poster at work in my cube, and each week I pull off the sticky that gives the number of weeks and replace it with a new one.  Today I slipped out of the 30's, to 29.  And man, that seems so close.  How did it get this close already??  Still pretty damn scared about the whole thing, can I really do this?, but getting much better at "staying in the moment".  And the days I don't feel like getting out there, I find myself thinking - if you want to do this, you just have to commit to it and do it.  Just do it.  It's so simple isn't it?  And yet SO powerful.  This weekend I ran 10 miles on the treadmill - a mere hour and a half...the girl I was running beside, a teammate of mine from Sport Factory - ran FIVE HOURS on the treadmill - 33 miles.  Now that is inspiring - THAT is commitment and dedication.  Damn.  Jen is training for a double ironman.  Go girl!

Had my first "race" of the season last weekend, and though I just missed my 10k PR, I did manage to place first in my age group.  It was a pretty hilly course, compared to my PR course which is totally flat, so I was happy with myself that day.  Even better was Kira competed in HER first race ever, and I was super proud of her.

Feeling good and feeling strong.  Looking forward to the next week, getting out there and doing my best.  Had a nice simple recovery run tonight, and it felt really good to just get outside and run without worrying about what the garmin said.  Just ran.  Even felt a bit like being home - home home that is - Canada - had Sarah blasting the ipod, had my new lulu outfit on, and one of my Running Room hats on with my beloved maple leaf.  :)  and there was a chill in the air, so wasn't hard to think of home.

Happy training!