Hey folks!

I kicked off Week 11 of training with a rest day on Monday (April 3rd) after running 15 miles on the Sunday. My first run of the week was an 8 miler on Tuesday, and the first few miles were at an easy pace due to the snow that we had had overnight (this was a shock to the system after the beautiful warm weather we had experienced for the preceding couple of days – Rocky Mountain springtime weather can throw out some surprises!). The first part of my route was on the neighborhood sidewalks which were a little bit slick in places so I was definitely being careful and taking it easy. Miles 4 – 7 were on the trails, which were pretty much clear of snow, so I was able to pick up my pace here before finishing up with an easy-paced mile to finish.

Wednesday was another rest day – I’ve been really listening to my body and trying to get a good amount of rest from running too in order to not exhaust myself. Thursday’s run was 6.2 miles, steady-paced for the most part with two faster miles (miles 2 and 3) to get my heart rate up and get those legs moving faster.

I didn’t run on Friday but I did get my cross-training in with a 45 minute indoor cycling class. Saturday saw me do my long run for the week – 10.35 miles at a mostly easy pace – then on Sunday I did some tempo work with a nice brisk 3.1 miles (with negative splits, yay!) followed by an easy-paced 1.1 mile cool-down run.

I lost my mojo for full strength workouts during Week 11, I’m afraid, although I’ve been good at doing core work. I’m taking part in RUN to Change Lives’ April Abs Challenge (which I designed) and did the exercises from that after my runs on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. On Sunday I did a couple of different strength exercises, including some calf raises.

My total running mileage for the week was 28.8 miles, slightly more than my training schedule’s planned 27 miles. I’m aware that there have been a few weeks during my training cycle where I didn’t run as many miles as scheduled. Life got in the way at times, which happens to  all of us, and there were times when I felt tired and that the rest would do me more good than running would. I haven’t done as much speedwork as I planned – motivation to do speedwork on my own remains a problem for me! However, I’ve completed all the long training runs except for one 18-miler that I missed when I was sick one weekend back in February. All in all, I’m feeling quite relaxed going into the Boston Marathon, and I’m now REALLY looking forward to the big day!

Hope everyone’s having a great week so far!

Thanks for reading!

Lynne.