Noquemanon

Last weekend (wow, its been a week already?!) was the Noquemanon in Marquette. There are many different races. Travis (my roommate) did the classic marathon, as did several Tech alum skiers (Karl W, Dave S, Mik K, Adam A). My boyfriend did the half marathon skate (25K), and I started before him in the 25K classic. It was my first ski race in several years, and I feel like I've become a much better skier than when I was thrown into the sport my senior year of college :) Anyway, my time wasn't phenomenal, but the conditions were slow (it was about 10F when I finished). I won my age group and finished 6th overall for women, and it really got me itchin' to do a full marathon. Maybe I can classic the Birkie?

I've also started my marathon training for Lincoln in May. I'm both excited and nervous about it, because after my first scheduled intensity training day (R intervals on the indoor track), I was sore and ... well, sore! I'm hoping its because I did them on the indoor track, didn't change directions, and haven't ran hard not-on-a-treadmill in a while. I am excited, though, because I will get to see my old roomie from Bozeman and catch up, as well as tick off Nebraska from my 48 remaining states. I am also hoping that a few of my friends will be able to make it to Nebraska with me... another running reunion perhaps? And of course... I hope for a PR. The course doesn't appear nearly as demanding as Whidbey was, and with a little experience under my belt, maybe I can break 3:20. My training schedule seems to work out perfectly; after Lincoln, I will have about a week of recovery, and then back into training for Ironman (right on track with the Daniel's marathon plan). I still plan on training for the marathon throughout Ironman training, but will use my easy days for other things like cycling, swimming, etc. And, of course, I won't be putting back-to-back high intensity days together. I am excited to see how I can work out hard swimming, cycling, and running workouts in a week's worth of graduate researcher's free time.