Last Training Weekend

5 miles with Ingrid! Great pace and my fastest 5 mile run.

My final weekend of training before Alaska! My dearest friend Ingrid arrived from Hawaii on Thursday, planning to spend a few days with us before attending a conference in Boston. We’d been out of touch for a while, and missed a good chunk of life events during that time, but it was easy to pick up where we left off. Good friendships are like that — they last forever.

Fortunately for me, Ingrid is a pro in ultra-triathlon and racing events and helped me wrap up some final details of pre-race prep. She reviewed my gear and added some suggestions — I’m good to go. We ran five miles together on Friday followed by a 4 mile Lynn Woods hike in the afternoon — and then spent Saturday morning kayaking and attending an arts fest before I drove her into Boston. It was sad saying goodbye, but hopefully we’ll do better at keeping in touch.

I had a long run, 7-8 miles, on my training calendar for Sunday, and planned to meet the girls for a 4 mile run after getting in 3-4 miles beforehand. Unfortunately, a quarter mile into my run, I felt my calf tighten and pull. Ouch! It wasn’t the worst strain I’ve had but it was enough to cause some pain. I limped back to the parking lot, not willing to push it any further. We had a farewell party for Jaclyn at Notch Brewery after the run, and then I returned home to pack (and nurse my tight calf).

I’m all set, ready to go! Tomorrow is a long travel day — Boston to Chicago to San Francisco to Anchorage. Departing home at 6:30 am with Mike, (taking the T to the airport) and hopefully arriving in Anchorage before 9 pm Alaska-time. I don’t know what the math comes out to, but I’m thinking 14 or 15 hours? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Ready to go.

Windy day on the water

The family that runs together (sort of)

Chip and his buddy Michael at a recent meet. Go Blue!

I'm chuckling a little that we all seem to be on a running kick here in the Cronin household. In addition to my half marathon training to prep for Alaska in June, Mike has begun his own half marathon training as well, waking at 4:45 a.m. twice a week to get in a run before heading to work. (Longer runs on the weekend). It's still ridiculously cold (and dark) at that hour in April, so he's been working out on the treadmill for now, planning to move outdoors when the weather improves.

Chip is running distance events on the high school track team this Spring, (opting not to sail this year). He's building on the success he had last Fall in cross country, and is running the one or two mile events on the track. He and Mike just purchased new track-specific racing spikes for his events. My pre-conceived notion that track was going to be the least expensive sport of the several he's been involved in has been proven wrong. Running shoes, running-specific insoles, track spikes, and team gear has come damn near close to lacrosse as far as expenses go. (Ka-ching).

I ran the Andrea Carey Memorial 5k run on Sunday and got my best time in a 5k(!), but not my best time in a 3-mile, which actually happened yesterday! Wahoo! I also rode in the rain for 30 Days of Biking and had an hour-long swim session last night, so I'm pretty beat today.

I mean, totally wiped out.

Wiped. Out.

Just a friendly reminder

C’mon, Spring! April arrives.

Bike, run, and now swim. March ends.

March went out like a lamb, with temperatures in the low 60s on Saturday, so I turned the heat off in the house — only to then turn around and fire it back up again this week when temps dropped back into the 20s. Hahahahaha. I was so optimistic!

April is going to be a busy month! For some unknown reason I decided to once again participate in the 30 Days of Biking challenge for another year, (number six), despite saying last year I was “retiring”. With so much on my plate, many of the rides will have to be short ones as I don’t want to overtrain, but I hope to get out on the bike every day this month. (We’ll see how that goes.)

My four weeks of base work towards half marathon training wrapped up and segued into the Hal Higdon plan this week. I ran three miles yesterday after a short bike ride to the beach, and then had a swim lesson at 7pm. This morning I’m feeling muscles I didn’t know I had.

We have twelve weeks to go before Julia tackles the Alaskaman XTri. It's still possible she may find a seasoned support runner for the Mt. Alyeska leg, but I'm still training for it just in case.

I got this.