Finally

Thanks everyone. I’m going to take some time off. Maybe a week, probably a month. I’ll swim a bit, bike a bit, run a bit, and either way, I’ll ramp up in August. For what?

I signed up last night for the White Rock Marathon in Dallas on December 9th (got the early bird special at 11:59p.m.). I’m excited. Finally something to focus on and plan around. I was so tired of thinking about what I was going to do. Back and forth, to travel or not to travel, to wait or dive in, fast course, scenic course, good organization, bad time of year, money, friends, family, blah blah yada yada. Geez, don’t be such a wimp and just run, baby.

White Rock was a little later than I initially wanted, but now it fits perfectly I think. I asked Jeff VanRunningMan, who ran the rock last year, what he thought about it and he said it was ok except for the merging of the half folks with the full folks around mile 22. But they’re supposed to re-route the half course this year to avoid that problem. Dallas is also close enough for easy travel and we have friends there, so it should be a good trip. I’m looking forward to it. Weird that the first thing I have to do now is hold back.

But the Professor tells me that Kenyan runners take the entire month of September off from running. Completely off. Don’t know if that’s true but it sounds good. I’m no Kenyan obviously, but that article Rich referred to also sounds on target, especially the last bit about Recovery Blocks:

When training or racing do not go so well, however, is when you really need a recovery block. Without recovery blocks, I can almost guarantee you will eventually lose enthusiasm for hard training and your racing performances will become mediocre.

Too familiar.

With my new found freedom and focus, it was hard not to go to the Firecracker this morning, even if I was planning on hanging at the back, taking it easy and cutting it short. Don’t know if it was that massage I got Saturday, but my hips were excruciatingly sore last night so I just turned off my alarm and slept in. Of course, I had to do something today, so I rode my bi-cycle over to the bathing pool and dog-paddled a bit. You know, had to get in my Dr. Koop recommended 30 minutes of daily exercise. Chalk me up for 45 minutes.

Of course, then I saw Fletcher’s running log and I felt completely behind the training curve and woefully underprepared. I should be building base! Aerobic development! Oh well, I’m just a recreational runner and I need the rest (shoot, I was even tired this afternoon after my 3 mile bike and 1000 meter swim). There will be time.

Anyone ever used this marathon plan from Benji Durden? Someone recommended it and I wondered if there were any other data points. Looks like I could fit it in with Gilbert’s classes fairly easily. I bought Daniels Running Forumla a few weeks ago, but I feel like I need a Ph.D in Exercise Physiology to follow it. I’m just a caveman, I need something simple.

I Probably won’t post much during the downtime.