10 weeks to go

To Boston that is, but at least the groundhog says there's only 6 more weeks of winter. This picture was taken yesterday with air temps around -8C and even the seawater remains frozen along this little inlet to the ocean.
Another shot of the picturesque Algonquin hotel that I just had to share with you because of the way it contrasts with the very blue sky. This was also taken yesterday. No sign of the sun or blue sky today as we are now in the midst of a winter heat wave with glorious temperatures today reaching a balmy +4C (39F) with a chance of rain in the forecast. Needless to say, I took advantage of this and got a nice 15 miler in as called for in my new schedule.

Week 2 (or 10 weeks to go) of the Pfitz plan (55 mi/wk 12 week schedule) was executed to perfection this past week with big check marks besides each day and no great difficulty in completing the runs thus far. Total of 39 miles as per the plan, Stan.

Thurs - 11 miles med long run in 1:36 entirely within the town area on a cold after work run. I zigzagging up and down the 1 mile core downtown because this was the only area with safely cleared and mostly bare pavement. I dragged a bit toward the end but was otherwise ok.

Friday - rest day (Yah!) and did my pushup max test to see where to restart my pushups. For some reason I've slacked off on them the past week or so but want to get back at them again. I'm still in week 6 but down to level 1 again.

Sat - easy 5 mile recovery run which is prescribed as being <75% of max heartrate which for me is about 130. It was a real challenge to run that slow and ended up with an average hr of 135 but still felt very easy and fun. I also took about 20 pictures and 2 video clips of bounding deer.

Sunday - 15 miles easy in 2:10 (8:37 pace, avg hr 138) in balmy temperature of +2C with a slight southwest (read warm) wind. Since Andrew was not available this weekend I ran this alone here in town starting with a 5 mile warmup loop of the peninsula. After refueling at home I then headed 5 miles out the highway to complete the assigned distance. I was even back home by 930am in lots of time for church! I need to pray for good weather and health.

This is a cool overview of my run using Garmin Connect. I don't think I've mentioned my new watch a Garmin 405 which was a slightly late but happily recieved Christmas present. After a few frustrations with the software and the constant beeping we seem to be getting along just fine. It tracks satellites very quickly and the heartrate monitor seems to work very smoothly with very few crazy readings thus far. It's a cool toy with lots of data and I'm a data kind of guy anyway.

Onward! The next week of training looks pretty good with more of the same as last week. It should be good if the weather holds like it's supposed to. Have a good week!