The Itch

Spent Monday at the Marathon. I watch it from the 19.6 mile mark. Get there early, run down to the fire station and then back up to mile 20. Did the 19th and 20th miles in 6:58 each. Not bad, but it was after only 2.5 miles, not 18. Very windy. Headwinds are bad enough, but to have them while running uphill is just nasty.

Spending a few hours watching people run the race certainly put a little marathon itch into me. I can't say it lasted more than a day or so, though. Right now, I'm still happy with my decision to moderate the miles (around 40) and up the tempo/speedwork component. Maybe by Dec/Jan, I'll be ready. Luckily, I have the running club for a number, cause I don't know if I have a qualifier in me.

Anniversary

Sorry it's been awhile since I've posted. My running has been in the doldrums lately. Had a run that resulted in a weird pain on the inside part of right leg, just below the knee. This made me tentative about runs for about three weeks. I've moved into a new phase of training as of Monday. May not be reflected in my log until the end of the week, but the goal now is to maintain a decent mileage level (35-45) while incorporating speed and races. It's only about 5-10 miles per week less than I've been running, but incorporating the speed is going to require some additional recovery time and races will typically lead to additional off days or very short days (both before and after).

More importantly, today is my 25th anniversary of running. I ran two miles on Sunday, April 15th, 1984. My first run, in anticipation of running the Maine Coast Marathon in May, 1985. I never ran the marathon, but I did keep up the running. A few very lazy years after college and some decent injuries limited my totals, but based on known records, I've run 26820.5 miles.

Here's to 25 more years. I doubt I'll get another 26,000 miles, but I'm off to a good start.