Week eight of eighteen is in the books and I am looking back at two months of training with a bit of fear and disappointment. I was worried when I realized my 18 week training plan started almost one week before Christmas. Was sure that all the holiday festivities would cause me to mess up my training. The first four weeks saw me only saw me missing out on three miles of training.

Enter January and the weird upstate weather. Two things come with weird weather – inside training days and illness. I do not like running inside but on bitter cold days or, in my mind worse, 40 degree rain days, I will run inside.

My first problem with this second month was illness. I am really surprised I did not get sick earlier in the year. My oldest daughter is working in a school and brings home all kinds of germs. I spent one weekend feeling horrible and mostly on the sofa. I did get in my 10 miler that weekend but did it inside and then immediately slept again. I did not, though, get my seven miler on Saturday so that week was down 7 miles but that is not my worst week  yet.

The following week we had bitter cold. I was unsure of running outside so did not go the 10K race Saturday but opted to run my 8 miler inside. At mile 5, something in my calf really started to hurt. I didn’t dare finish those miles. Minus 3 for the week so far. Then, Sunday was supposed to be a 16 miler. Did I dare run? Should I go out, unsure of how far I will go, and call whatever I get in good? I opted to ice and rest the calf with the knowledge Monday was cross training so wouldn’t be a run on my calf day. This week put me 19 miles in the whole for the week. The total weekly mileage was less than on my fall back week.

This past week was a good week, more or less. I did 15 miles inside for my long run, which was supposed to be 17. I missed a four miler at the beginning of the week due to helping unload a fruit truck. Good week, all in all.

So training is getting harder. Training is getting better, too. Here’s hoping the next four weeks are fantastic!fitn