It's going to be the little things...

With our time in Boston potentially coming to an end soon, I've started to think about the things I'm going to miss about living here:

• The beauty of the tree lined street we live on no matter what time of year
• Waking up in the morning to see Cambridge across the river every day before I get in the car
• The sound of the baseball fans at Fenway suddenly cheering on the warm summer air 

That's just the first few of a very long list of things I'll miss if we do wind up moving, and I'm finding it's the little things I think I'll miss most. I was thinking about this on my run last night and how it equates to what I'm learning about training for an Ironman distance race, and how my body responds to it. 

Following the hot 10k on Monday, my calves were very tight, and for some reason I didn't think to stretch them after the race. I've never really run enough on back to back days to get the kind of tightness I had been feeling lately, so I don't really have a stretching routine in place. I've also been dealing with some lingering soreness that wasn't bothering much except right after exercise.

I started doing some stretching last week, and on my run last night realized that I need to be doing it after every workout, because as I run just 1 1/2 miles last night, the discomfort I had following the 10k lingered on. Even running in my recovery socks only did so much to reduce the discomfort. It wasn't until I got home and stretched that I started feeling better. I kept the recovery socks on for almost an hour after the run too, for good measure and by the time I took them off I felt 100% better. Hearing people tell you that the difference in training for a half and training for a full is like night and day doesn't really hit home until you start noticing the differences in how you feel along the way.

Also, I have to tell you about the best $60 I've spent in a LONG TIME. Back when I paid for Rachelle's entry for Rev3 Cedar Point, I joined Active Advantage. Nearly every race we register for these days is through Active.com, including the big expensive triathlons. The idea of Active Advantage is for a flat fee, you can register for all the races you want at a discount. The discount depends on the cost of the race. 

Aside from the discount you also get access to other promotions including free race signups. Plus, you can use it for all the people you register for a race, so if you and a spouse do a race together, you get the discount on both entries. The $60 paid for itself with the first 3 races we registered for (all the triathlons we registered for qualified for the maximum discount), and I've taken advantage of 4 free race giveaways. I gave the first 2 away to friends as they turned out to be scheduled on the same day as other races I was doing, but I did the Harvard Pilgrim 10k for free, and now I've get to race the ROK-a-5k on 7/16 up near Gloucester MA. Rach love Gloucester, so it gives us a chance to go back up there. 

If you do a lot of races, it's definitely worth it!