It's been a while...after the high of finishing Spartathlon I went through a bit of a hard time. I was physically and emotionally drained, and couldn't get back to training right away. I got a bad staph infection in my underarm that created a large abscess and prevented me from running, while the antibiotics I was on made my legs feel weak once the wound healed. I ran the Marine Corps Marathon in late October on little training and not being fully recovered from Spartathlon. Needless to say it didn't go well. I'm proud of the money I raised in support of TeamRWB, but not my race time (just under 3:45). After that I took about a month nearly completely off. I was just tired of training and very frustrated.
After Thanksgiving I decided to really dedicate myself to training for a PR at the Boston Marathon. So for the past month or so I have been concentrating on speed. Speedwork and a tempo run every week, plus a hill workout and a long run. I'm also doing one weight training workout a week, mainly in the hopes of decreasing body fat. I'm at least 10 pounds over what I would call a good "racing weight" for me, and I know I need to be lighter and fitter to go faster.
On January 1st I ran my first 5K in about a year and a half. I didn't do as well as I would have liked, at least partially due to the extra weight. But I did run fast enough to place in my age group at a competitive race, and the first mile was the fastest I've ever clocked during a race. So although I've still a ways to go in order to run a sub 3:15 at Boston, I think I'm on the right track!
