SICK SATISFACTION

Normally, I “like” to beat myself up over not doing the little things that’d help make me a better runner. You know, stuff like strength training, stretching, foam rolling, diet, etc. When it comes to diet, I try to eat healthy, but I also have a sweet tooth. And a salty tooth. So it’s easy to get carried away in the snack department. It seems I worry about that more when I’m running 40-60 mpw. However, at 80 mpw, I’m a lot less concerned. In fact, I’ve basically been shoveling anything and everything into my mouth without thinking about it. My friends that think I have an eating disorder would be surprised.

This week at work I have gotten a sick satisfaction out of eating 2 pieces of cake on Wednesday for Cinco de Mayo and 2 more pieces of cake yesterday, along with a couple of cookies and a chocolate rice crispy bar, for a wedding shower. I like to think that it’s my way of showing my co-workers that they could eat whatever they want too – they just need to run 10 miles a day.

The thing about running 23 miles last Saturday is that, if I want to keep my weekly mileage the same without running 23 this Saturday, I actually have to run more during the week. That means that at one point during this week, I was at 91 miles for a 7 day period. That has to be one of my top 10 (maybe top 5) “weeks” ever. I guess it’s no wonder that I’ve been a little tired lately.

I can still remember Double leaving a comment a year or two ago where he used the mountain climbing analogy of being “above the tree line” to describe my fitness level. You know, you put in the hard work and you get to a level that you rarely see. I’m not sure I’m there yet, but I’m trying to get there.

Anyway, right now my “master plan” is to run a half marathon tomorrow, followed by my first day off in 2 weeks. Then I’ll focus on another 2 week block of training that will culminate with a 30K. Then I’m going on vacation for a week, so I should have plenty of time to recover from that training block. The trip is 4 weeks before Grandma’s, which is a little too early to start tapering, so I’ll ramp back up for a week and then do a 2 week taper.

Quote of the Day;

"If the furnace is hot enough, anything will burn." – John L. Parker, Jr.