It looks like many of you 'west coasters' are either in Maui or have just returned. Thinking of that warm weather makes me jealous (but Katie and I are heading to Bermuda in three weeks!). Just about all of the snow has melted, and it was quite a winter for snow. Katie and I each had five snow days, so that extends school for another week. Lately, the weather has been getting warmer, and I've even been able to get outside for a few bike rides.
In regards to running, I've been slowly building up some volume after not running for January and February. I had Achilles Tendonosis, and am still receiving PT once a week (Graston Technique). I have zero pain in my achilles, which is great, and as a result of not running for two months I was able to get in a lot of swimming and biking on my trainer.
Speaking of swimming, I competed in a swim meet with my masters swim team last weekend at Harvard. It was the New England Masters Short Course Yards Championships (say that fast ten times!!). I entered in one individual event (200 freestyle) and two relay events (200 medley and 400 free). I was the youngest person by 17 years in my 200 free heat and there were two people in their 70's! Talk about humbling - swimming is all about technique, and I'm not all that great yet. I swam the 200 free in 2:50, good enough for 11th in my age group (out of 12!!!), and over a minute behind the person that won the age group. Still, it was fun to compete, and my team won the overall title - without me they would have...........well, I guess we'll never know.
Back to running - Katie raced in Hyannis at the end of February, PRing in the 10k with 50:29. She's hoping to go under 50:00 in a 10k that we are both racing next weekend in Cohasset on the south shore, and I'm shooting for somewhere in the 39:00-39:30 range.
Regarding the 2012 Boston Marathon, my plan is to hopefully qualify at either Quebec City (8/28) or Lehigh Valleh (9/11). I'm currently leaning towards the Lehigh Valley Marathon because I'm doing AG Nationals (Olympic triathlon in Vermont) on August 20th, and that would give me three weeks between races, instead of eight days. The Lehigh Valley course is supposedly very shady and partially run on some trails - the Quebec City Marathon could be very windy and has very little shade. Both courses are relatively flat.
With the qualifying standards, I'm thinking my best shot of getting into Boston is running ten minutes under my qualifying time, which would be sub 3:00. I'm doing a half marathon at the end of May which will be a good measurement of how I'm coming along, and I'm hoping to run that in the 1:24 range.
I hope that there are more posts as the weather warms up and more races take place. I'll let everyone know how our 10K in Cohasset goes.
