As of today, there's just six weeks left until the Boston Marathon. I get fluttery, little jitters inside my stomach when I think about it. The excitement is starting to build as is the training. These next four weeks are critical, it's when the really hard work--the training specific to the marathon--really gets gritty. I've decided to include the last two weeks of training, since one of those was a vacation week and I thought it might be interesting (for some) to see how I juggled being on a family vacation with marathon training (for more tips on that be sure to check out my post for Women's Running Magazine this week). Thankfully (and intentionally) the week of vacation was also a planned step-back week and I planned to run my first 20 miler the day before we left. Once that was done I felt like I could relax and really enjoy some "easier" running down in Florida. I found it pretty easy to get up and out of bed early to get it done during the beginning of the week, but towards the end of the week a few of us started to feel sick (I woke up with chills in the middle of the night on Saturday and felt like a train wreck) and the running got harder. Here's how vacation week looked:

Monday: travel day (opted to skip a 30 min recovery run)

Tuesday: 8 early morning miles and then 10 miles of walking around Epcot

Wednesday: Interval workout. If I'd been at home I probably would have done 4x2K on the track, but since I was on vacation we (the coach and I) opted to run a timed interval 4x7 min hard effort, 3 min recovery. With a 10 min warm up and cool down. I'm not sure what paces I hit because my garmin was impossible to look at since it was flopping around by one strap on my wrist. But it felt hard and with the humidity and heat (even at 5:30am) I was pleased with the run. 7.5 miles total And more walking!

Thursday: Four mile hill climb on the treadmill. My usual hill climb of 20 min, increasing the incline by 2% every five minutes starting at 4% and fishing at 10%. 4 miles total. And more walking!

Friday: was a planned 30 min recovery run, but I opted to just go with the walking I knew we'd do in the Magic Kingdom. Finished with another 10 miles of walking for the day.

Saturday: 10 miles. Ran three miles on my own before meeting my good friend Jesica, from runladylike.com for another 7 miles. After running solo around the hotel grounds (we're talking laps around a .8mi running path) it was so nice to have company. The miles flew by!

Sunday: after waking up in the middle of the night with chills and a general feeling of being hit by a bus opted not to do the four mile tempo run I was supposed to do. Slept in, drank a ton of coffee and walked 8 miles in Hollywood Studios.

Weekly total: 29.5

Monday: Travel day. I had the intention of getting up and doing the tempo that I had missed, but my body just wasn't having it. So I decided that it was better to sleep in, rest and be healthy for the rest of the week than push myself. Sad not to have one last run in shorts before heading back to NH.

Tuesday: 10 miles in a real feel of 14 degrees was a rude awakening after shorts and tank running in Florida.

Wednesday: The plan was to wake up early and run my track workout on the local high school track, but with freezing rain coming down I decided that it was best to do it on the treadmill. So I went back to bed. Slept another two hours and fit my workout in mid-morning. Three miles warm up, 8x800 at 6:20 pace (3:10 for each 800) with a 400m jog recovery, then 4x200 with 200 recovery, followed by 2 mile cool down. I went into this run knowing that I needed to do it and knowing that it would be a mental challenge. A little Fixer Upper helped too, Chip and Joanna FTW. Finished the day with 11.5 miles...on the treadmill.

Thursday: Treadmill hill climb. Per usual. Plus drills and cross training. 3.25 miles

2x50 butt kicks, high knees and toe taps

2x20 reverse fly, bridge, single leg bridge, side plank with running leg, sumo squat KB swing, sumo squat thrusters with KB

Friday: didn't sleep a wink since Liam was up with a cough three times during the night. But managed to eek out 3 miles on the treadmill.

Saturday: Four mile tempo run. Tempo runs always scare me. Going into them I always feel so uncertain that I can reach and sustain the paces I'm supposed to. The goal was to run 7 min pace, the last four mile tempo I did I consistently ran about five seconds faster per mile for each mile and felt comfortable so my thought was to run around 6:55 pace again. I started off feeling really good, each time I glanced at my watch it was 6:45 pace, it felt effortless and smooth and I kept telling myself to reign it in. I ran the first to miles in 6:55 and 6:51, then I turned around and realized why those miles had felt effortless. The wind! It smacked me right in the face and suddenly I was looking at 7:10 pace. It took a bit of effort to get my body back to the goal pace running into the wind, I managed 6:56 and 6:53 and finished of the six mile run with a mile cool down back to the house. 6.6 miles total

Sunday: 20 Miles. The last time I ran 20 I ran a depleted run on a very hilly course. This week I planned to run a similar course, but planned on fueling (a good choice since I'm still fighting some sort of cold/sinus congestion) and hydrating on the run. The run started as planned, but finished in a very uncharacteristic way for me. My plan was to run a ten mile loop, swing past the mailbox and pick up my water, and run a second, harder 10 miler loop. I intentionally put the harder loop second. I ran the first loop and decided to swing through the soccer park about nearby our home to add a few loops before swinging by the house. The loop around the soccer fields is just about a mile and it is gated so there's no traffic at all (normally it would be blanketed in snow, but that's all gone). I ran one lap, then another and then decided to run a few more and do a smaller five mile loop. Then that five mile loop didn't seem so appealing and I decided to stay put and just keep running loops around the soccer fields. It worked out since I stashed my hydration belt and then my gloves and then my hat. I ended up running 10, one mile loops. Then ran home to finish off the 20 miler. I guess I was in the mood to just zone out and my pace was pretty consistent and I didn't have to wear my hydration pack. It was a win. The run went well and by the time I was done running loops I only had a little over a mile to run to get home.