What, When, Where?

I have been analyzing races and stuff in my head this morning.

First, I have the Shamrock Run in Portland on Sunday (running the 8K) and I have been checking the weather. I hate Oregon this time of year. It has been stormy and rainy for like a week straight now and it does not look to let up at least as far as the 10-day forecast tells :( We live on the coast, and a lot of the time Portland will give us a respite from the weather. But not with this storm...and yes, Sunday it appears it will be rainy :(

I still really want to run the Shamrock bad because I missed the first run I wanted to do this year. I have the Rock n Roll Half Marathon in Portland in May, and I need the Shamrock to catapault me into training for the half marathon.

Speaking of training, I am not following a training plan anymore. I did too much too fast with the Hal Higdon one and I don't like the low mileage weekly runs followed by a crazy long weekend long. I'm searching for something more my taste. I feel like I need to let my body work up to the mileage more. For example, if I have a 10-miler up ahead, I would like my body to be pretty used to about 6-milers. I have been there before and it is a comfortable place. Otherwise I personally begin to break down. And with that thought, I would like to add when you don't see a workout post from me, it is most likely because I am cross-training. I am cross-training about the same number of days a week that I run with a 3/3/1 ratio (3 runs/3 cross-train/1 rest). Cross training is usually the elliptical, a long walk, yoga, weights...and I am looking into some higher intensity classes such as boot camp and spin.

That being said, I am in good shape, I showed a few weeks ago that I can run a 9-miler and survive quite well if that were the case for a race. I would just have to suffer some aftermath.

So I have decided to kick the Newport Marathon off of my race schedule in order to give myself more time to properly train for the marathon I want to complete this year. It may end up being Portland, who knows? It turns out there are quite a few to choose from so that is not a problem. I also added a few smaller/close-to-home races that I know I will do this year as well.