The Hamptons!!

It has been decided! The 2014 CEMS Marathon Team will be running The Hampton’s Marathon this year!! The race is on Saturday (is this a little odd, or is it just me?), September 27th. Both full and 1/2 marathon distances, as well as a 5k, are offered all at the same time. I’m hoping our team will have “competators” 😉 in each event.

Per usual, the major focus of this year’s marathon will be:
1. The very best team uniforms

2. Excellent pre-race eats

3. A weekend of QT + R&R with an eclectic pack of nerds 🙂

One additional aim, IMHO, ought to be for the group to acquire ZERO broken legs during this year’s marathon. Dr. Samia….

Aside from the above, my goals for this year will be largely dictated by the kind of training that my bitch of a lovely job and summer travel plans allow. If I can get a solid 18 weeks x 4 runs/week training season in, I would love to see that pesky 3:xx that so narrowly evaded me by 1:40 last fall. If not, well, then aside from hopefully having a summer of wonderful wedding and vacation and house-guest memories, and a paper or two in the works, I’ll enjoy hobbling running the 26.2 with whoever is willing to wait for me.

The off season has (of course) been less consistent than I would have liked but I did get in some nice track, interval, Vibram and tempo work outs in. I have to use my imagination (or be a-okay with lying) if I want to claim there were many any long runs (>10 miles), but I trust that those will come now with the beautiful weather and seasonal allergies. 🙂

This year’s training plan will be very similar what I followed last year. I much prefer the 4 day/week schedule, with a few more miles on each day and an extra rest day each week, to the more traditional 5 day/week regime. The rough goal will be as follows:

1. THE LONG RUN – the most important run of the week. I’ll try to get this out of the way on Saturday mornings and cover 8-21 miles. For those of you how know me (read: know about my issues with being able to hydrate properly on hot summer long runs) will be excited to know that my H2O struggles may be a thing of the past! You can address your thank-yous to this pretty little birthday gift I received last fall…

Don’t worry, I will find plenty of other bonehead struggles legitimate grievances to share with you along the way 🙂

2. The recovery run. 5-12 miles to work the consequences of Saturday out of my legs. Happy Sunday 🙂

3. The Tuesday Tempo run. 3-7 miles at faster than race pace to give the legs a rude awakening little reminder of what it feels like to turn over at a reasonable pace.

4. The middle distance weekday run. 5-12 miles at a comfortable pace to keep up the fitness level and keep down the jeans size.

The core strength training that I’d hoped to be super diligent about this off season has unfortunately been less than a top priority 😦 Naughty Dr. Trot. Reflecting on the situation, it is a bit odd, even to me. I know core strength is important, I know my abs and back and arms and pecs could/should be stronger, and I know it doesn’t take that much time to crank out a few “lifts” at the end of each work out. But somehow it is still a hell of a lot easier said than done. Why is that? (Dr. Trot = L.A.Z.Y. is the best that I’ve got thus far.) Regardless, these NEED to become a regular part of my training this season.

Alrighty then! Long story short, I think that’s it for now! Overall it’s pretty simple, eh? We shall see!