:(

R&R was a blast but it went by so quickly. My husband left early this morning.
This time, though, we'll be apart for only 3 months, inshallah. That's about a third of what we'd been through. This way, it seems sort of like a nine-month deployment and a bit tacked on to give us time to get our crap together before moving in together again. It should go by pretty quickly except for the last week or so.

Meanwhile, I'm sad, I miss him, but I've got to get through all these chem labs quickly and that will make the time go by quickly at first. That's the key, getting over those first few weeks by staying busy. Then things kind of settle into a rhythm. Unfortunately, for me, that usually means sleep deprivation....

And, oh, running. Yeah, that thing. That took sort of a backseat. I ran some, but my heart wasn't in it. We did hike and walk a lot, though, and I've decided, I'm counting those miles. After all, I'm training for an ultra, and a bunch of those walking/hiking miles were either on sand or hills, or while wearing backpacks or carrying stuff. Admittedly, the longest walk was 6-7 hrs in Montreal, punctuated by beers and smoked meat and shopping, but, hey~those were hard-earned miles and took a long time. I might make it to 200 miles again this month, at any rate!

Today, though, my husband left at the ungodly hour of 5:00 am. I moped for a bit, and then decided that since it was spring, the path by the river should be clear. Dang it, it should be! So the dog and I set off for a very leisurely 10 mile jog/walk, to Westboro beach and back. It took nearly two hours. Bits of the path were under snow, some of it a few inches deep, and there was a bit of ice, but most of the path was clear.

My legs felt so heavy, though! But I'm not entirely surprised by this. We usually go visit my MIL and then my FIL, and this toasts my legs: a few days running in the 'hills' (Appalachians, I guess--there's nothing flat there, at any rate), and then a few days running on trails near my FIL's house, and then a few days running in/on sand by his beach house. I'm not complaining! But fatigue has crept up on me before with this menu of terrain.

Anyway, I have got to get my crap together with this ultra. It's in 7 weeks. WTF??! I've already done a few four-ish hour runs this year...if I can squeeze in a couple more, maybe 5 hrs, that would be great. And a back-to-back or two. If I can jog two or three hrs one evening and then 4-5 hrs the following morning, that's the best I can do at this point, I think. Meanwhile, I have to look at the route more carefully, where the hills and fuel stops are, where I can have stuff sent to, etc, etc. And I have to get a headlamp. I've already decided to mostly walk for that first hour while it's still dark, lol, but they still insist on a headlamp.

I found out that they will have chicken broth at the fueling stations, though!

Seven weeks....shoot....but in a way, that's good. I can focus for 7 weeks. 16 weeks or whatever for marathon training seems too long, but 7 weeks, that's not endless.

So, top priority: longer long runs, and back-to-back runs. I don't think I have time for more than two weekends of the latter...

stairs, stairs, stairs---probably those on/behind the hill. I figure I can throw those in fairly often.

something on trails, although I think running in all this snow for the last umpteen months counts for something.