NOT TOO SHABBY

I ran my last 20 miler on Saturday. That gave me 70 miles for the week and 296 for the month. When May began I added up all the miles on Pfitz’s schedule and I think it came to 304. So, overall, not too shabby.

Sunday I watched the Minneapolis Marathon at around mile 23. I’m not sure if I should be fired up or scared to death for Grandma’s after watching another marathon. Even the people that look good can still look miserable – if you know what I mean.

I was thinking about the weather for all of these local spring marathons (Fargo, Eau Claire, Green Bay, LaCrosse, Stillwater, Minneapolis, etc) and it seems like they’ve all been pretty decent. It makes me wonder if the Grandma’s folks are praying for the cool conditions that they always seem to hang their hat on – but never seem to materialize. We’ve already seen that their numbers are down due to the supply and demand of races to choose from (and expensive hotel rooms). Another hot day on June 20th could affect the number of entrants in 2010 too. I guess I’ll worry about that later.

Monday I headed back to the track for my next to last speedwork. It was another round of 600s and another round with the wind. After a slow first repeat, I decided to not time any of the remaining repeats. With less than 3 weeks to the marathon I don’t really care what my 600 meter times are. I figure more harm can be done, mentally, than benefit gained, by timing my repeats.

This morning I ran 11 miles, about half of which were with Rick. I would say I’m “edging towards” my taper. This week is still scheduled to be 60 miles. And with a race planned on Sunday – which is usually my day off – I’ll be up near 70 again from Monday to Sunday. So it'll be more of a 2 week taper this time.

Quote of the Day;

“Writing is never easy. And no matter how well done, never to one's satisfaction. Writing, someone said, is turning blood into ink. Whatever, the idea of suffering is so natural to both writers and runners it seems to be a common bond. And therefore no surprise when one turns out to be both.” – Dr. George Sheehan