Lake Effect Half Marathon & Finding Balance

This post is long overdue but finding a work-training balance has been exceptionally hard over the last month.  I teach college classes and the semester seems to go in cycles with a mid semester red zone leading into midterms and a final three week push with projects and then final exams.  I just hit that midway point and last week I had seven days of zero miles.  I still managed a few crossfit style workouts with my trainer so some core/arm/leg work is better than nothing.  

I did manage to fit in the Lake Effect Half Marathon on February 25.  This race had about 1,000 runners from what I saw and was set up to potentially be a tough day.  Syracuse is generally snowy in February so this is a race where you typically bundle up and fight the flakes and footing.  This year it was high 30s/low 40s and we had some rain in the forecast.  I was not looking forward to a couple hours of being wet and cold to the core but the race day turned out to be a great day to run.  The rain stopped by about 8:00 am and the start of the 13.1 was at 9:30.  At that point it was windy but dry and stayed that way until the last mile where it started a welcome light rain.  The course was hilly and I appreciated this knowing that Lake Placid is on the agenda for this summer.  I'm pretty certain I had a PR on this run and finished with a smile.  

The next race is a month away and I just started spring break at the university.  My work-life balance will tip heavily towards the training this week and I'm ready to log some miles and work in some speed work on my run.  After break, I'm hoping the weather will finally break so more training can happen outside.