About 8 weeks to go
Well we're into the second month of the year and today has to be the best day weather wise, will be a great night for your second TT of the year and after all of the great times last month and another month of good training under your belt I imagine most of you will be tearing it up tonight and tomorrow night, should be fun.
Don't forget to submit your times - http://runningnw.com/new/index.php/training/2-mi-time-trial-submit
The next two months are really important for those of you running April and early March Marathons, basically 8 weeks of training left before you taper and rest up for them. You need to make each week count. Only about 7 weeks after this one. I always used to count ahead because it made it seem shorter. If I was doing 9 hill repeats and I was on the 5th one I would say only 3 to go after this one, seem like less to do. When counting weeks if I had 8 weeks to go i would say ony 7 to go after this one. The way I see it I was already into one so I knew I could get that down so it made sense to count ahead to the next one.
Bottom line however you want to count it you'll need to focus for 7-8 weeks on your training and making sure you do the work that will lead to a successful race in later in the spring. That means get your long runs in, do your quality workouts such as Time Trials and hills and so on. Even get in those short little runs during the week it all adds up to success if you do it.
That also means get your rest and eat right. I used to think about my long runs as races prep drills, I would go through the same routine the night before my long runs as I would for my race. I figured it would only help those runs be easier and help me recover from them so I could put more into my other workouts. So resting and eating well was an important part of my training as well as working hard.
For a good read about one of our hard working members go here: http://admit.washington.edu/Admission/Staff/Spotlight/AnnabelleAllen
Also I was sent this link from Anna today it's pretty funny, I think: http://www.1037themountain.