I had the best intentions to try to do an update on training every week or too. But, of course, it sure isn’t as easy to find the time to do that compared to when I first started this blog in 2014. I was very dedicated in updating this page with my Dopey Challenge updates, my races, my fundraising in memory of my dad….I really wish I could add 5 more hours in each of my days and maybe, just maybe, I’d then have enough time to do this every week.

This isn’t complaining. Life is great right now. But holy shit, everything just piled on at the same time it feels…guess that’s how it always happens. So I have this training happening, which I want to note is going GREAT. Honestly, not sarcastically. I have stuck to my coach’s training plans pretty dead-on since we began just before January 1st, 2025. It has been going awesome. I am nailing the paces and the distances. It has been great to be feeling so great while doing this. This is huge, as when I did my last full marathon in 2022 I was not in the same shape. I am feeling like my old self, and pretty damn proud of doing this while 40 years old.

I have only had some pain in my hamstring, and this is a bit frustrating. I noticed it back in November, actually, its always just been kind of ‘there.’ I have had massage done, I have foam-rolled, stretched, etc…but it is always just lingering. I am just crossing my fingers that it doesn’t progress to anything that leans towards the injury realm.

Tomorrow, I bribed our son to go to the weekly Park Run 5km in preparation for the annual Moonlight Run, which is the following weekend. Andy will be running the 6km at Moonlight with dad, while I attempt to race balls-to-the-wall in the 10km and see what my old self has in me. The bribe for doing the free 5km tomorrow is that Andy gets to choose where we go to dinner. He chose Original Joes, which we aren’t mad about. At least he didn’t pick Boston Pizza. If he doesn’t finish Park Run, however, I need to follow through and cancel the reservation and maybe I’ll just be sludge and get Taco Bell for myself for dinner. I do plan to do a nice little recap after this race weekend comes, as I always have. If you search Moonlight Run on my page, you will find TONS of posts. I really love this local evet because it always seems to be the kickoff to the race year.

Dan has been getting into his own training schedule too, with a focus on the Red Deer Half this May (already registered for) and toying with the idea of a fall full marathon (TBD). My workouts for London take precedent, but we have been balancing with him also running 3 times a week. Along with Andy’s basketball, swim, indoor soccer (season just finished, phew), hosting a Japanese exchange student, having parent council duties as Treasurer, trying to help out with Lethbridge Trail Alliance, work turbulence and uncertainties, day-to-day life, making meals that aren’t absolute shit, and trying to just balance life….we are busy.

Going on the runs take a lot of time out of each week. When I had a ‘high mileage week’ recently, I logged around 44miles and had tons of hours of workouts completed. Tracey, my coach and one of my closest friends, uses this great program Training Peaks where she uploads the workouts onto the program, then they get loaded to my watch…then my results get put back on the program. You et it. It’s great. Below are some visuals that I can see in the training plans. You definitely have to plan ahead, schedule wise, when trying to do this type of training along with all the other things in your daily life.

At almost halfway through March, I know the rest of the month will probably fly by. When April hits, that when shit gets real. The Marathon Month. Like, holy shit…I get to go to Europe with my best friend for a week and get to run the largest marathon in the world. My 5th Abbott World Major. Wow. This doesn’t really feel real yet, but I know as the countdown keeps ticking away, the more excited and amped up I am going to get. Until then, I am too busy with everything else to think too much about it!