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Published: June 12th 2007
I'm going to start in the middle here and we'll work our way back as we go along. Sound good? Awesome.
So, today is more or less a new beginning for me. I'm about 4 weeks or so into my marathon training and really starting to notice some results. For instance. Last Saturday I ran seven miles. Seven miles! Seven! Now, in comparison to the what, 26.2 that I'll have to run in October, yeah, seven is not such a huge number. But, in comparison to the roughly, oh, I don't know... none, that I used to run, seven is Huge! So that's a major change right there. The next big change... pain. Whew. I mean, I've had a messed up knee for some time now and that's no big thing (especially since I actually bought legit shoes and corrected my horribly sideways step. Apparently I've been running on the outside of my foot for basically my entire life (which in hindsight should have been rather obvious considering the fact that every pair of shoes I've ever owned wore down to nothing on the outside while remaining virtually untouched on the inside of my foot. I'm kind of like an emperor penguin when they're carrying the egg on their toes (you've all seen March of the Penguins right?))). But yeah so, that pain is no biggy and has more or less gone away since the shoe replacement, but now, what with the increased mileage... shin splints and weird hip pain plus muscle pain in places where you wouldn't expect (shoulders, abs (rock hard though they be) jawline (apparently I clench on the uphills). Good times all around I'd say.
As I said, I'm about four weeks in now and seven miles is my peak so far. That said, this last Saturday was a smidge different for me than the other runs. I got up at 5:30, made myself some Cream of Wheat, loaded it with brown sugar (rationalized by a need to "carb-load" for the run and an intrinsic belief that anything unhealthy can be construed as a "carb") and made it to the Torrey Pines reserve by seven am. The Torrey Pines reserve is a beautiful place right on the coast of San Diego and is the only place in the world where the "Torrey Pine" grows (and also maybe Catalina Island, I can't remember). I crowded in with all the other Team in Training (TNT) runners, we learned about the benefits of massage from the sports massage guy for the San Diego Chargers' LT, did our stretches and took off. My usual running partner John, has decided that vacationing with his wife is more important that running with me, so he's gone for the time being and the girls I occasionally run with (Kelli, Maria, and Tasha) decided not to slow up for the kid with shin splints, which left me to try and push myself the seven miles solo (poor, sad me). I did it somehow and actually managed to fall in with another group for the last three miles. Coolness right? So we finished up and I used Mr. Massage Guy's tools to relax a bit, went home, showered, iced down my left shin and right knee, hopped in the car, and drove 9 1/2 (NINE AND ONE HALF!) hours to San Francisco for my soon-to-be cousin-in-laws bachelor party, eventually crashed at about 5am, woke up at 9am, hopped in the car and drove the 9 1/2 (NINE AND ONE HALF!) hours back down to San Diego where I am currently unconscious and unlikely to wake anytime in the foreseeable future. Dude...
Needless to say, my coach... not super-stoked about this weekends adventures. Turns out, massive amounts of time spent sitting, moderately irresponsible drinking and a near total lack of sleep don't really mesh all that well with the established training regimen. I tried to assuage her misgivings by referring to beer-drinking as "carb-loading" (by now my favorite term if you haven't noticed) and the time spent driving as "cross-training" but she wasn't really buying it.
Long ways to go to get to 26.2 by October. By the way, did I mention that this marathon is taking place in Dublin? No? Hey, just wanted to mention to you that this marathon is taking place in Dublin. I know, right? It is awesome. I'm glad you agree.
Thanks for stopping by, next time, I'll try to give a little more background about what this whole gig is about and hopefully tell you all about our Honored Team Members (cancer survivors and those currently battling cancer, just some really amazing people). Until then, please check out my other site at [url=http://www.active.com/donate/tntsdh/tntsdhJPaddoc and subscribe to this one for updates on my continuing adventures (that is if I haven't already done so for you and forced your hand (wink)).
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GREAT Aunt Janice
non-member comment
Lesson Learned
As long as you learned your lesson about BP's and Marathons, I hope you had a good time. I'm sure (as you know, Paddocks are always sure) you'll never break the rules again.