Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Quote

In running it is man against himself, the cruelest of all opponents. The other runners are not the real enemies. His adversary lies within him, in his ability with brain and heart to master himself and his emotions.


--Glenn Cunningham, American Runner in the 1930s

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

A Long Overdue Update

Here is a much needed and long overdue quick update for any of you readers still left out there. It's been a month since Hartford and I'm feeling back to 100%.

The first week back was some light running just to stay loose and monitor any little body issues. I ended up having some nagging hip/hamstring issues in my left butt muscle area (that's a technical term) so I called it quits after 2.8 miles into the second week.

The hip/hamstring/butt muscle felt better for the third week and I got in just over 20-miles and started to do some lower body strength. The fourth week was much of the same.

This week I'm doing a little strength for the lower body, a hill workout (more strength for the lower body) and a long run of 10-miles. Longest since the marathon! When I saw that on my schedule, I got a kick out of it because right now I'm thinking of that as a long run, but when Sarah and I were in the marathon and we hit just past 16 I remember her saying that we had a 10-mile training run left - nice and short.

The first weekend in November I spent at my parents home with my family. My grandfather (my Dad's Dad) passed away so it was an emotional few days. On the bright side, I saw all of that side of my family - even met some that I didn't know previously - and I got in some good running - even one with my little sister. It was really hard running there. We were both out of significantly out of breath after one mile. Sad, isn't it? I swore we were at higher elevation than I'm used to and in fact we were. My parents house is about 1450 feet elevation while my place is only 14 feet. That combined with the much colder (and much denser air) probably combined for the crazy out of breath feelings at mile one.

So that's really all I have to catch you up on. Oh and I got my Boston Marathon card in the mail last week. How did I forget that?! It has my BQ on it and everything. I can't wait! I'm happy that I've started building strength for my marathon training.

And now that's really it.