run, rest, eat, bitch, buy things, cross-train, blog, repeat.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Progress Report

Well, today is 1 month from my race battling the bears, mountain lions, snakes and apparently spiders Grizzly Marathon. And, I gotta say... I feel pretty dang good about my training so far. I've been getting hella mileage (last week, for instance: 71 miles. Holla! Although, I must say... the mileage has become a bit of an obsession that I'm trying to keep a handle on. Moderation has never been my forte). My miles have been slow. But, I try not to let it bother me when every damn day I'm logging in another 10:30 slow ass run. I'm fine with it, really.

The good news? I don't really have a time goal for this marathon. Which, upon hearing, Vandy-Montana, responded "well, there's a bar a couple of blocks from the finish line. I'll head there when I finish and you can find me there when your slow ass is done*." Dude better make sure his cell phone gets service in this bar, so that he'll get the emergency call to come and identify my body after I've been mauled by a bear, bitten by a rattlesnake, passed out from heat exhaustion, fell off a mountain, or whatever else the hell is going to happen to me while I'm running.

But, yeah... no time goal. This has definitely made training more fun for me... not worrying about pace, just getting the miles in. I'm sure it's not the best method for improvement. (But hey, I'm training in the summer, so that's improvement enough for me).

The only thing that is lacking from my training? Nothing significant... just a 20 miler. Arg! Somehow, I've managed to avoid running a full 20 miles and I plan on rectifying that this weekend. It is going to suck though. If I've learned anything about training in the heat... it's that it sucks major, major ass. I mean... my legs feel fine... and I can handle the constant sweat dripping, but I get super loopy and foggy and at some point, I stop trusting myself with important decisions, like... whether or not to cross the street even though there is a car coming directly at me. Yeah, they'll stop for me, even though their light is green and mine is red. No problem, right? It's actually kind of scary, which is why I think I need to pick a pedestrian friendly park to get this 20 miler in.

*So, he didn't say slow ass... but you know he was thinking it. I can and will quote thoughts.

4 comments:

J said...

Good luck with the 20 miler! You can do it!

Anonymous said...

FYI, we start our runs at 5:30 a.m. here if it's over 15 miles. Much nicer without the sun, and for some reason, you never seem to really notice or feel those first few miles in the dark, making the run seem shorter than it actually was! Just an idea, particularly since you'd only have to do it once.

Van 1- Hall said...

enjoy the long run this weekend and that race sounds friggin awesome.

only because I have once become obessed with mileage and though well if I can run X miles, than why not add some more and hit Y....cus if you're not smart you end up injured....I am so amazed you did 71 miles...did you think you would 6 months ago when I started reading this...enjoy it!

Spike said...

wow, 70+ miles and not one 20 miler, that is impressive. you are going to have a great race, just avoid bears, they are ruthless.