January Review - Pre Boston Marathon

Thanks to surprisingly good January weather, the month wrapped up really well workout-wise. To sum:

* Missed workouts - 0. I've found that work, weather and health issues usually knock me out at least 1-2 days per month, but January was flawless. I had 4 planned rest days and took 4. One workout had to get moved due to weather, but that was it.

* Total mileage was 204. That's my third highest total of the past 12 months. Perhaps more important, it's a very nice volume for me so far before the Boston Marathon. It bodes well for a good build.

* Re-introduction of speedwork. The best surprise of all was 4 successful tempo runs, culminating with an 8 miler that included 7 miles @ 6:52 pace. I also did 4 hill workouts that will now turn into interval workouts.

* Diabetes-wise, things were pretty good, though not as well as I'd like. According to my numbers, I spent 3% of the time higher than 170 and .6% of the time lower than 60. Both of those figures are a bit higher than I'd like. It seems when I'm really jamming I'm only over 170 about 1.5-2% of the time, and can keep the lows to as little as .2%. But still, it wasn't horrible.

February will bring my annual trip to our UK office, but this one will be a couple of days shorter than other years, which means I shouldn't have trouble hitting all of my long runs prior to and immediately after the trip. With jet lag and work, I keep things casual running-wise on those trips, getting in easy miles when I can and not sweating it if I can't. The shorter trip this time means it shouldn't hurt my fitness much at all.

Historically speaking, I hate January more than any other month, due to the horrible weather, the limited light and inevitable head colds. This year was a pleasant surprise, and I'm happy to be on the back half of winter already.

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