AT FOUR AM!!!

Last Thursday I happened to be wide awake at 4:30, so I decided to add a medium-long run to my week. However, my Achilles acted up and I had to limit the run to 7 miles. This morning I had to take some friend to the airport…AT FOUR AM!!! Actually, my wife was going to take them, but I figured if I dropped them off then I could take another crack at a medium-long run.

Everything worked out. I felt really good and was able to run for 2:04, which I’ll call 15 miles. About half of the run was on the Hyland Park trails. I think normally these would un-runable at the end of March. However, due to our relative lack of snow and our early-season heatwave, the trails were in awesome shape. That bodes well for the 25K that I’ll be running on those same trails on April 21st.

I’ve been kicking around ideas regarding what training plan I want to follow leading up to Grandma’s Marathon. I had thoughts of adding in a 2-3 week Lydiard-like Hill Phase. However, due to a few factors, I’ve decided against that; 1) the way my calf, Achilles and knee have been lately, 2) the race is 11 weeks away, and 3) in the last couple of years I think my Hill Phase was too long. Besides I had a stretch of 10 weeks where I did 9 hill workouts.

I’m going to go back to following Pfitz. I haven’t decided if I’ll follow the 70 mpw plan (which seems a little low) or the 70+ mpw plan (which seems a little high). I may just split the difference. Since the first part of his plan is base-work, I’m just going to jump in as if I’d been following his schedule all along. Guess what his medium-long run for the week is? 15 miles! And I didn’t even know that prior to today’s run.

When I wrote this article on Jim, Don, and Norm nearly 5 months ago, Jim suggested I submit it to some of the smaller local papers near where they live. I put it off and put it off, but finally got around to contacting three different papers. Two said they were interested. So far the Stillwater Gazette is the only one to take action.


Pretty cool. At least I think so.

Quote of the day;

“Above all, challenge yourself. You may well surprise yourself at what strengths you have, what you can accomplish.” – Cecile M. Springer