Recovery from last weekend has been surprisingly swift, managed to stick with my full running schedule for the week without any undue difficulty.
Saturday was an 18 mile day when I tried to keep the pace consistent and deliberately took as hilly a route as I could. Hills are the major thing that I have to work on. Found the joys of Emory and North Druid Hills neighborhoods, plenty of hills. Rules for the run were that each turn was to be uphill whenever possible. Tied that in with the spring weather which has stepped up the temperature a few notches the challenges are increasing. Carrying water has become a requirement now not an option. Time to start testing and get used to the various options.Guess I'm becoming a bit of a running nerd as I debate the merits of my Camel back or the Nathans water bottle belt. For the record the bottle is good in town where you can refill Camel back is the way to go if you are not sure of water sources along the route.
Well the training is officially having some serious effects on me. Sunday morning I was very nonchalant about heading off to do 15 miles, just a matter of deciding which direction to head off in and make sure that the battery in the Garmin watch is charged so I know how far I've gone. Strange thing was it was that straight forward hopefully I can get to that point for 50 or 60 miles in the next few months, well maybe. Mind you no way I'll ever be able to take sure distances so casually.
Have to note that when I started running 13 years ago I would never have believed I could build myself up to the point that I could be able to run double digit days back to back a week after having my ass kicked doing 32 miles. This was not where I ever expected I'd be. When I started running the plan was to help get back into somewhat decent shape after many years of boozing, poor eating, smoking and a generally crap lifestyle. Back then my dream was that at some point I would be able to do a marathon some day. A goal that seemed very unlikely as I struggled to do a few laps of the 1/2 mile circuit off Northside Drive where I started running.
I am still amazed by where I have gotten to so far, now I've just got to keep pushing forward. Still along ways to go but I believe that I can make it.
Doing a marathon seemed liked one of my least likely to ever happen pipe dreams. Strange now to talk and write about trying to get up to 100 miles, next pipe dream.
19 weeks to go, stuff that dreams are made of.
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