Made it. 7 consecutive 60+ mile weeks in the dead of winter. Pretty happy with how that worked out. Very solid effort, built up a solid base, lost 10-12 pounds, and even worked on some speed. Now it’s time to reduce the mileage and rest up for my first big race of the year.

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After 6 solid weeks in the ‘zone’, ticking off the miles, watching my diet, going to bed early, getting lots done at work – this week started out with some major speed bumps. Threw me off my groove, you might say.

I had Monday off and wanted to run, but got wrapped up in the process of registering my son for high school so put it off. I was looking forward to a lunch run on Tuesday, but it turned out to be a terrible day. Some things happened that really rocked my world and left me feeling confused and upset. Then to top it off, I had an explosion of problems to address and didn’t get home until 10pm. Strike two.

Wednesday was redemption time. I was back in the office at 6:30. My legs were still kind of thrashed from the race last Saturday, but I didn’t care. I figured I had a little extra time to burn over my lunch since I put in the extra hours the night before. I pulled a Forrest Gump, and told myself as I jogged out of the parking lot that I was going for a run and didn’t know when I’d be coming back. Unusual for me since I have things pretty structured most of the time. My brain was crammed with thoughts, I was still a bit angry about the events of the day before, and just wanted to get it out of my system.

I ran easier than normal for the first few miles, then settled into a comfortable rhythm. After an hour, I thought to myself – hey, why not do a marathon?  With that thought, my pace became more determined and I became very focused on the task at hand. I was a bit on the cold side, wearing shorts in 30 degree weather, but it was better than overheating and being all sweaty for a long time in that kind of cold.

I was having a blast, but had a few things working against me. I only got 3 hours of sleep the night before, was running without food or water, and I was wearing brand new shoes. From mile 16 to mile 20 I started to struggle. The pace was wearing on me, and I constantly asking myself “How’s the motivation level?”… I would narrow my eyes a bit each time and try to focus just that much harder. I think the lack of food and water was catching up to me, and I was hating the shoes. They were stiff and solid feeling. I missed my trusty Nike Pegasus.

I ran the last 6 miles pretty hard just to break out of the rut I was in. I finished the sucker in 3:36. Just a training run on a random Wednesday. Dang. Maybe I should take a crack at one of these things…