Hard to believe, but in six weeks Hopkinton will be hopping. I had an uneventful week of easy running, then switched a Friday run to Thursday due to a rainy forecast. With Friday and Saturday off, I surprised myself by running mile repeats really well at the track yesterday. I could smell the sun baking the black rubberized surface, it was about 60 degrees and breezy and wonderful. At the moment it's snowing like crazy, and we're supposed to get a delightful wintry mix this morning. Rain, freezing rain and snow. This winter will have to give up eventually, but it's not gonna do it without a good fight. Damnit. Hope there are lots of good reports for this week, we're heading into the home stretch.

I had a strong week of running. It was capped off with my longish run yesterday. I ended up chatting with a group I "ran into". They were holding a quick pace (a bunch of 3:00-3:30 marathoners). Turned my run into a "marathon pace" run and had a pleasant chat to boot! It is snowing in Vancouver - very unusual. Everyone was doing garden work yesterday morning. The poor crocuses and snowdrops! I found out I was drawn for our local summer 50K trail run. Yeah! Third year entered, first year lucky. Happy, healthy running to everyone this week. I'm off to Disneyworld on Thursday.

BadDawg, uneventful weeks are what we want at this point. Sounds like you are fine tuning that engine of yours. CfKid, congrats on the 18 miler! Good luck with your upcoming 20. workn', it's a good sign if you were able to chat while running a marathon pace workout! Have a good trip to DisneyWorld. You bringing your running shoes? evanflein, as always, great job getting it done. I hope come April you won't have to be dealing with that stuff any more. Not much running going on here due to continued dealings with family health issues. The stress finally broke me down and I got sick this week. Tried to run a 15k race on Saturday, it was held near the hospital so I thought I'd give it a try. It was one of those things that you knew was a bad idea as soon as the starting gun went off. Getting the bad stuff over with now, right? So in 6 weeks, all should be good. Hang in there gang!

I started last week feeling pretty strong. Not sure what happened at the end. I don't think THIS has EVER happened...I was so completely and utterly exhausted by my run on Friday. My knee was a little sore so I took off Saturday (unheard of!). I spent the day in and out of naps. Sunday I woke up late (forgot to spring forward) and only got in 2 miles before I had to get back home to wake dh up so he wasn't late for work. I never did my long run. I laid around all day yesterday, in and out of naps. wth is wrong with me!? I think maybe it was the previous weekend's 20/15 back to back. or maybe it was because I picked up my pace a bit? I'm still exhausted today but I felt really good on my run this morning. Is there any such thing as too much sleep? I've been in bed by 8 or 9 all week, and my alarm goes off at 4:30 am. But I wake up at 3 and have a hard time going back to sleep.

dcv - I hope that knee/quad thing of yours just magically disappears. You doing anything for it to help it along? I guess I should be happy with my KP run, but realistically I was looking for my time to be about 2 minutes faster. My quads killed me for the two days after the race, a testimony to the need to run downhills for Boston. Lifesabeach - I'm smelling a touch of overtraining going on with you. Tread carefully. missy - another good week for you. Yep, Saturday was a beauty, you picked a good day to run the park. There are some good Boston type hills there, I hope you took advantage of using them.

dcv - how about some self massage or foam rollering at least for that injury of yours? You're in great shape, I'd hate to see this thing keep bugging you. Dang, I'd love to run a 1:28 half and say it was a not too hard effort! I hope to see you there, but I'll be crossing the 11 mile mark about the time you will be finishing on the other side of the road. I may see you at the 10k as well.

btb - I'm not saying it will be easy It will be a marathon effort, after probably 3+ miles along lovely Nichols Road. Then I'll finish and head off for another 4... I did 12.1 @ 6:44 Sunday (in an 18.1 miler), so thats about a 1:28.. How are you treating the HM? MP, Long run, race? I do some rolling and stretching when it gets bothersome. My wife the PT does some massage when its bad. Right now I forget about it.... I think it will be all right if I don't go and do something stupid (like start doing squats, etc.). I think the taper will help it as I'll probably cut back then...

Nice run on Sunday! That's right, I forgot your wife was a PT. I'm sure she keeps you in line. I'm scheduled for a 21 miler the day of the HM, so I plan on running 8 miles before the race, then continuing on in the race at my long run pace, picking it up the last 6 miles or so to MP. I'm using it to test out everything that I plan to do on marathon Monday. Nutrition, clothing, etc... That's the plan for now anyway. Are you saying that Nicholls Road is boring? ;-) You can double back after you finish and tow me in.

I have to admit that I am not enjoying this much (not even my run this Sunday when it was in the 60s), and can't wait for it to be over - a big change from fall training, which I was loving. My knee is hurting, and even when it doesn't, the leg lags giving me a fun little limp, and I spend my whole run fretting about it. I should probably start logging about it, so I can tell if it's getting better or worse - I really have no idea. Even besides that, every run feels a lot harder than it should, even after two weeks off and a mileage cutback. Bitch, moan, whine. If only I could channel my former undertraining self to cut back even more. At least the weather is finally becoming (slightly) nicer, and my runs are back outside, so that's good.