I Really Do Maintain a Blog

I know, I know.  It's been a while.  My posts here have been anything but regular.

I have been under considerable stress recently. When you add to that some nagging injuries, it's just been hard.  Are the injuries related to the mental stress? Anyway, it's been a real struggle to break the 50 mile per week mark.  60 miles per week has taken almost super-human focus.  The few times that I've broken 70, I honestly don't know how I did that.

However, I'm coming off of a 65 mile week that felt fantastic.  I believe that I have the necessary 65-70 mile base required to begin serious marathon training.  So now it's time to come back and focus again. Now everything counts: planning, stretching, diet, drills, mileage, hills, quality workouts, recovery runs, rest. Three hours at Boston.

I'll end with a funny story from yesterday's 18.5 miler.  After 17.5 miles, some kids on bicycles were riding alongside me and we started chatting.  They seemed like good kids, maybe 10-11 years old. I asked them if they thought they could beat me in a race to the end of the street.  One said, "We've been out here a long time and we're pretty tired."  I said, "I'm working on my 18th mile, I'm tired too." "WOW! 18 miles?!?!" "Yes. It's fair. Let's race to the top of the hill there." I took about 5 or 6 quick steps and said, "GO!"  I had the lead!  But of course, bicycles are much faster than feet after 17.5 miles and they pulled ahead.  My hamstring actually stood up to that fairly well.  At the top of the hill, I congratulated them and paused for a minute to share some high fives and idle chatter.  It made my run.  The moral of the story? Have fun.  There are more opportunities for innocent fun than we ever realize.  Little things can make big things more enjoyable.