It's Getting Real

For only the 3rd time in my life, I ran 20 or more miles. The first was a training run last year, then the San Diego RNR last year, then my 20 miler yesterday. Without MCM around the corner, 20 miles is just a bit too much for me to go and knock out for no reason.

I ran solo, starting in the dark at 6:30am, and finishing in 3:35. Nice easy even pace throughout, 2 GUs, 1 self-supplied water bottle unlike others fortunate enough to have a support team, or at least some company!

I felt surprisingly fine all day yesterday after the run. I hope that's a good sign. When I did an 18-miler a few weeks back, I felt like %!@&# all day long, took a long afternoon nap, and still got up feeling tired!

This week is a step down week, followed by one more 20 miler the next week before tapering into the home stretch. I can almost smell the starting line ...

Zzzzzz

I'd blog some more, but I'm sleepy, and it's only 10:40pm. Waking up early to run is ruining my "night person" persona. I've never gotten up so many times between 5:00 and 5:30 am as I have in the past couple of months.

Last Monday, I was thinking about this, close to the end of my 13 mile long run, shifted from the previous Sunday due to rain:

Ran a half mary
Before work
Before breakfast
Before sunrise
What the hell am I doing?

So it's not my best work, but it's all I had. I don't dislike running, I think, but I really can't wait to get MCM over with. I'm impatient while running, wanting to finish up, but also needing to stay on pace. I can't run too much faster, for fear of messing up my next run, and of course it hurts to run faster too. On my EZ runs and LSD runs, I generally take my time until the last couple of miles, and then I step on the gas because I desperately want to avoid missing my target time.

Despite all this, I enjoy the morning time. It's dark. It's cool. It's quiet. And I get to run down the middle of the street, all to myself. In the dark, you have to adjust your running. In the dark, you stay off the sidewalk, unless you want to step into hidden souvenirs left by dogs the night before. In the dark, you get prepared to run into a lot of cobwebs, at all the same places, like the spiders never learn. In the dark, I look up and see Orion in the sky, and I remember my dad teaching me to spot it when I was probably about 1st grade or so, and it's still there, and so is he. In the dark, when I'm running, I don't feel sleepy anymore. I feel good. Even if I don't know what the hell I'm doing out here.

It's Been A While

My reading and commenting time took a big drop off. I started a new job back on 8/14, and it's been pretty hectic. At least it challenging and stimulating, but like any company, it has its Dilbert moments, and clients will always be clients, and there's never enough resources, and ... oh, never mind.

So let's see, what else is up? Well, I'm still running. My EZ runs are fine, my long runs are fine (18 miles last Sunday), but my last 2 pace runs really sucked. I was starting to get really worried, but I think I have it figured out. The past two weeks have been bad for allergies here, and I think that's it. I'm able to do my slower runs without any problems, but I run out of gas on the faster ones after about 3 miles. I have another 8 mile pace run on Sat, and my allergies have cleared up enough that I should be able to do it.

What else. I went to DC a couple of weeks ago, and didn't get to run. That stunk. I took a car service from BWI to Tysons Corner, and it cost a whopping $110! That's nuts. Even though that's not out of my pocket, that's too much. The next day I took the Metro into town ($2.94), met friend for breakfast at Union Station, took some calls, then took the Amtrak to BWI ($33). That felt a lot better. Plus, I really wanted to get around on the Metro and Amtrak because that's what I plan to use when I come back for MCM.

Nothing to report on the racing front. I'm missing all my favorite races, because they'll really mess up my Sat morning pace runs, and I don't need any more obstacles! The Half is the weekend after MCM. Early registration ends tomorrow. I'm wondering if I should chance running it, or if I'll be too spent after MCM. Maybe I'll try volunteering for a change. I'll miss out on the cool long sleeved tech shirt though.

Jumping around to another topic, I got a great deal on shoes I want to pass on. Check out Running Warehouse. It may have just been luck, but I found my Brooks Beast there for only $92! No tax, and free 2 day shipping. It's $120 retail! If they had more, I would've stocked up, but they only had one pair.

2 more things before I sign off. One - do you think I have the most boring header around? Well, say no more, I stumbled upon Susan's new gig, and viola! a new header will be arriving soon at this site ...

Two - Happy #0th Birthday to my other Susan, big sis Sue! I'm guessing there might be a drop or two of wine spilt today! Cheers!