Wednesday, January 04, 2006

NOT ACCORDING TO PLAN

I don’t really have a plan, per se, but if I did, this week would not be going according to it. Monday afternoon I dropped my wife’s van off at the mechanics to have them check the brakes. I didn’t notice anything, but she said they were acting up. The garage wasn’t supposed to be open, but they’d look at it on Tuesday. Well it turns out they were open, but were leaving at noon. Not a problem since my mother-in-law is on vacation and we’re able to use her van. However, I forgot to take out the car seats before dropping off the van. Amy went by later to get them, but they had pulled the car into the garage before leaving for the day.

What all this means to my running is that I would have to hang around my house Tuesday morning until the garage opened at 8. I could still get my run in before work, but with the icy paths I mentioned on Monday, I decided to hop the treadmill just to be safe. I ran an easy 10 miles at about 8:20 pace.

Tuesday evening I stopped by the garage on my way home to pay for the brakes and get the keys and then went home. After dinner we loaded everyone up to go get the van. Remember when I said “I didn’t notice anything” when I went to drop the van off? Well on the way home I did notice something. A very loud knocking as I pressed on the brake pedal. Of course by this time the garage is closed for the night.

This morning I took the van back in and ran 5 miles on my way home. I planned on running twice today anyway, so it’s not a huge deal. However, it’s a big enough inconvenience to take a car in once, let alone twice. My mother-in-law comes back Thursday evening, so hopefully they can fix it by then.

With all that said, I’m going to do “whatever it takes” to get in 90 miles this week. As I mentioned in a comment to Mike, I tend to get conservative when I approach a mileage level that’s new to me. I’m feeling pretty good lately and I feel like I’ve been hovering in the 80s for awhile now, plus next week is a cutback week. It’s time to take another step upwards – even if it requires 10 runs in the week.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Good luck on the 90 miles. I understand your apprehension. I got in one 90 mile week last summer and it took me 9 runs to do it. The next week I cut back to 70. I hope to get back up there in the next few months as well.

Chad said...

I just looked and I've been in the 80-84 mile range 9 times in the last 2 years. So I'm proceeding with caution.