TAKE THE OPPOSITE

What better way to start the week off than with a new interview? Of course, I’ve enjoyed all the interviews, but this one is pretty sweet.

Isn’t the mind a wonderful thing? I had a list of reasons why I should limit Saturday’s run to 12 miles. Stuff like;

It’s the last day of my cutback week; I can ramp up next week.
It’ll give me 54 for the week – right where I want to be.
I could squeeze in a nap before company arrives for an early Christmas.

Then I started thinking about all the reasons to run 15 or 16 miles;

Even with a cutback week, I should keep in my “long” run.
The weather is awesome (35 degrees and no snow on the ground) for December 16th.
Great companions to make the miles go by faster.
Faster companions to make me work harder.
The rest of the family is busy, so they won’t miss me.

In the end, I met Kim and Jenna for a nice 15 mile run along the Mississippi (I think that’s still the only word that I have to consciously spell out in my head as I type it) River. I’m not sure if it’s my new shoes, which happen to be a new model for me, but my calves have been sore ever since. Anyway, this run gave me 57 miles for my cutback week.

During Sunday’s 12 miler, I was either on the golf course or running through Lebanon Hills Park. I didn’t feel that great, but running in my two favorite places, near my house, definitely helped. After the run I took a shower and was nice and squeaky clean – only to discover I had dog shit on one of my running shoes. Crap – literally!

You know how some days it feels like you have the best form in the world and everything seems so smooth and easy? Well, take the opposite of that and it describes my 8 mile run this morning. Damn, I’m ready for another cutback week.

Quote of the day;

“It's just impossible to ignore the results guys like Dick Beardsley were getting from putting in a ton of miles. There may be guys out there with the talent to run great marathon times off of 80-90 mile weeks, but I definitely don't have that talent. The beauty of the marathon though is that you can close the gap on the guys with great talent by working harder and logging more miles, which is what I intend to do.” - Michael Reneau