Week 1 of 18

Well, today was the end of my first week of my 18 week training plan, counting down to May 2nd for the Lincoln Marathon. I entered the race and got a hotel reservation for the night before. I found a suite so I won't have to worry about waking the kids early and vice versa. Looks like a nice place. Today was a "long run" day, which was 10 miles. Next week will be 11 miles, then it backs down...or is it another long, then short? Whatever, but I am following Hal Higdon's training program for Advanced I runners. I am not sore today, nor that tired, but this is week ONE, so I fully expect to be more and more tired yet more in shape. Tomorrow is relatively "easy", with 45 minutes of yoga.
I ate like a garbage can these past few weeks. I know I gained a few, so need to work those off, plus a few more to get into perfect marathon condition. I have a little flab that can be removed and who knows, maybe help my run. A few minutes can make a big difference when it comes to time goals! Now I have 17 weeks to be paranoid about the weather condtions and what other marathon I can do. There's one near Minneapolis but it's only 4 weeks after the Lincoln one, so not sure if that's the best move when I have time in consideration. There's a cool one that starts near Storm Lake, but that's in July, so could be 80 in the morning. I'm not a good hot weather runner, but I guess that's the one I will probably do, plus have some fun with the boys on the lake after the run. I've never been to Storm Lake, so it's about time!
Well, on just another note, I have never seen so much snow in my life! We played in the back yard and we had to dig a path so we could get the fence gate open. It's fun to play in and it was quite a beautiful snow from last night and this morning. It's so cold that it fell in perfect typical "snowflake" pattern. You could pick it up and blow it. Anyway, it appears that we will have snow on the ground until next Christmas since there's so much of it, so I guess we will be out a lot and have a lot of fun. It's hard to picure us wearing tank tops and the sun heating us up as we play, but it's hard to picture snowsuits in July too.
Enjoy your weather, whereever you are!