Check-in

[ell]

Hi Runners,

It's been a while since we had a Weekly Monthly Update...

Hope all is going well with you. I've managed to not post 2 race reports in the last month and I'm gearing up for the Silvesterlauf (New Year's Eve Run) here and then no races until March. How is the training going? How was/is your season? Any good tips for surviving the cold and dark winter here in the northern hemisphere?

(In case anyone's still interested, I managed to finish the Frankfurt Marathon in 4:16 after hitting the wall hard around km 34. Until then, I was exactly on track for my goal of 4:10. This was still an improvement of 12 minutes over my first marathon, but I was feeling so good in the first 27 km, that the utter misery of those last 8 really took me by surprise.)

Comments

[gnomad]

I am back in the habit of regular running and hoping to regain some of my former speed. So far so slow. Next weekend I'll be running with bells on for a holiday 8K and then it's training time until March when I'm doing my first half marathon. (Yes, I have, in fact, been calling various races my First Half for ALL of 2011. No, I still haven't run my first half yet. Son of a bitch.)

But yay marathon PR! That's a mighty speedy marathon even with the 8K of hurt. :)

[ell]

Yay! You're running again :) glad that you're over all the injuries. will you literally have bells on? I used Ryan Hall's plan for my first half and Hal Higdon's for my most recent. I think everyone I know is running a half this spring. we can be each other's cheering squad!

[gnomad]

I will have bells on! Or at least some antlers. I'll have to look at various half programs. The trouble is that I'm simultaneously training for Escape from Alcatraz in June (hills! cold bay waters! deep sand running! 400 steps! HILLS!), so I need to balance my run training with swim/bike as usual.

[ilanarama]

Yay! I find it's always easier to regain former speed than it was to get it in the first place.

[gnomad]

I hope so. I will be terribly annoyed if it takes me a year to get back to my former speed. But at least I'm over the Everything Hurts Oh God Why Do I Do This hump. That is always an encouraging first step.

[ilanarama]

I think it took me the amount of time I was laid up. I couldn't run for four months, so it took me four months to get back to speed.