BACKED OFF

Since the last four Saturdays have included 19, 19 and 22 (all moderately-hard to hard) miles, along with a 10K, I decided to back off on the mileage (and the intensity) on Saturday. So, even though the schedule called for 18 miles, I cut it off at 14 miles. That gave me 62 miles for the week.

And after taking five Sundays off in-a-row, I decided to run an easy 5 miles last night. It probably looks like I was trying to “make up” for Saturday’s “missed” miles. However, since I’m running a half marathon on Saturday, I wanted to make sure I get my miles in earlier in the week. That way if I cutback later in the week, I’ll still have in some solid mileage.

I don’t think I mentioned this, but a month or so ago I started getting Runner’s World. It turns out it was a complimentary trial subscription from the Chicago Marathon. Sidenote: I’m not sure why it took 6 months for a trial subscription to kick-in. Anyway, I was reading it and came across a name I recognized from when I was 14 years old. Apparently one of the gals that used to dominate our local races went on to earn her PhD in Kinesiology. Her name followed a brief response she wrote to a question. I did a quick google search and came up with her email address and shot her a quick note. She responded right away, saying she remembered me and my family. Pretty cool, since it’s been over 20 years since I’ve seen her.

Speaking of the latest Runner’s World; How about Cece St. Geme!?! 6 kids. And those abs. 17-minute 5Ks. Age 44. You have to be kidding me. All women must hate her.

Quote of the day;

“I have a great admiration for the men and women who ran competitively in the early stages of the running boom. Minnesotans like Dick Beardsley, Garry Bjorklund and Steve Hoag trained their butts off before there was really any money in the sport, before we were supposedly “more educated” about sports physiology and training, before there was technical microfiber shorts and shoes laced with shock absorbing gel. They just put their heads down and ran hard everyday. As American distance runners today, these are the guys that we’re still chasing. I have no problem with my pillow-y shoes, but I’ve been trying to embrace their outlook.” – Jason Lehmkuhle