So apologies for the lack of bloggin' of late.......somedays Wifi in the Rift Valley is next to impossible......,ok I've been a cat of meny hats recently and finding time to sit and blog has been difficult,plus I have missed a few runs{tsk tsk bad runner,shame shame!!} so here's recap of all things Pale Kenyan since San Diego.
Between spending long overdue quality time w/ my Sister in LA and then jetlag upon my return and throw in a Stiff Little Fingers gig the week of Sept 25th-Oct 1st just got away from me,glass empty lost miles I can never make up,glass half full less miles on my almost 54 year old legs heading towards the Philly Marathon on Nov 19th.......
Tue Oct 3rd easy 6 miler to "get my feet wet" after an 11 day hiatus,could and would have gone longer but for the Eddie Izzard show at 7.30pm,as a fellow marathon runner I'm sure Eddie would've understood me being late for his show......not so much the audiance at the Merriam Theater......
Wed Oct 4th 15 miler,maybe because anything less than double digit mileage feels like a cheat the 15 miler felt easy after 6 the day b4,that and the fact 15 miles has become "the new normal"
Fri Oct 6th another easy 6 miler having skipped a run on Thursday,if I felt ok during and after the run Wednesday, fatigue caught up w/me Thursday ergo no run but w/ 27 miles on tap 60 miles was still there for the taking w/ a 15 miler Saturday and an 18 miler Sunday......sounds easy when you say it....
Sat Oct 7th Early on I felt 15 was wishful thinking and rather than grind it out at the risk of scuppering the more important 18 miler Sunday I settled for 10 miles and took a half hour soak in the tub w/ cold water in the hopes it would refresh my legs for Sunday.........
Sun Oct 8th BOLLOCKS!!!!! early on it was clear 18 was not happening and the further out I went along Kelly Dr the longer back home my walk in the rain was going to be,in running as in life somedays you just don't have it...today was one of those days.....
At this stage the last thing I needed to do was "throw the baby out w/ the bath water" and or "throw my toys out of the pram" so I took a day off from running or even thinking about running......
Tue Oct 10th 12 miles,again I could've gone longer but for a social event at 8 pm but 12 felt good,at the time I marveled at the continuing Indian Summer we were enjoying in mid October,but as I always say treat those days as if they are the last because sooner rather than later they will be......
Thur Oct 12th So that 12 miler would prove to be potentially my last "Three S's"{shades,sleeveless,shorts} run the rain on Wednesday caused me to baulk at a run that evening,I had reluctantly decided that 5 days a week marathon training had become counter productive and ran up the white flag but swore that come hell or high water I'd run 15 on Thursday and as I stood in my kitchen in the wee hours of Thursday am popping my daily vitamins I was reminded by a quote on the kitchen cabinet"Don't put off till tomorrow what you can do today" and even though it was 5pm b4 I got out the door I was driven to get the miles in.
Grey and overcast I ditched my shades plus knowing 15 miles clocks in at roughly 2 hours and sunset is around 6.30pm I couldn't risk tripping up in the final few miles if I went w/ shades
This would prove to be one of my final 15 milers,I will miss the out and back along West River Dr to Falls bridge and back but it has served me well
Sun Oct 15th,SO I had set the alarm Saturday for 6am w/ every intention of getting up and getting out the door by 6.30am for a 15 miler like I had a few times in Aug and Sept......I guess it was a tad easier then when it was either dawn or daylight,a much harder sell in mid Oct,glass half empty another missed run,glass half full fresher legs for Sundays 18 miler....
W/ 17 miles as my longest run todate I had to nail 18 today and I'm happy to report I did,out the door by 8.30am in grey overcast skies the game plan was 8 min mile pace for a 2.24 time,I managed 7.38 mile pace to clock 2.18.08
I haven't ran 18 miles in 12 years since my last marathon training cycle but w/ my 15 milers providing a solid base I honestly felt comfortable out there this morning.
So the trick now is to log three 20 milers the next three weekends,again easy to sit and type that as it is to mentally write a training schedule while I'm out there running for two plus hours but as we're getting to the "business end" of my training cycle I have to hope putting all my faith in "going long" over 20 miles the next three weekends will be enough to get to the finshline of the marathon in five weeks time.
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