The Final Week

I'm posting what could be one of the last blogs I write between now and my marathon. I can feel the weirdness creeping in, my stress level has started to rise a little, and honestly, I'm making changes in my running schedule on the fly as I get within a week of the race. First off, I honestly looked at the running I was doing during my taper. The miles were low, but the number of days that I was running was not really going down. For the 2 weeks I was tapering, I was going to run 9 out of 14 days. I decided at the last minute yesterday to take the day off, and while sitting in the hot tub at my gym I sent a text message to Squirrel1.1 asking him how much he was running these 2 weeks, as him and I are running on the same day. Let's just say I think I had too many days in there. Tomorrows 10 miler will be replaced by some yoga and a half hour or so on the exercise bike. Then Monday will be 3 miles. Wednesday probably 4 or 5, then 3 on Friday to make sure all systems are go.

I think I am more nervous now than I was at my first marathon, the expectaions are up for me. Not from others, but from myself. I feel deep down that if I wanted to push this, I could do the Sub 3 hour marathon, but am going to stick to my pace chart and get my BQ hopefully. I'm posting it here for the first time. 3:06. That is the goal time. That is what I am looking to run. I'll try for something grand in Chicago or NY, knowing that if I blow up, I still have my BQ done. I am scared that when I hit mile 20 again that my body will do the same thing that it did to me in Phoenix. That the result could be the same as before, that I may do worse. That I may just not be able to do this. I saw better runners than me put up times in Boston that were higher than my goal time, and that's been a little bit of a reality check this week.

I've had a good weeks running, and can feel my body getting stronger, although I feel like a whale with the eating and not running as much as I'm used to. From a personal standpoint, it's been a tough week in spots, although I did have an awesome night sandwiched in the middle of it. Although a 1:30 bedtime may not be the best thing for someone who's supposed to be resting :-p. As the days tick off for this race, I imagine I'll just continue to get more and more nervous and these posts, if I have time, will get stranger and stranger.

Enjoy your weekend.

Purgatory

I once read a book called "On A Pale Horse". It was written by Piers Anthony, a famous Sci-Fi writer. The book was about a man, who attempted suicide, and his soul was so much in balance that death had to come for him personally to collect his soul. When I say death, I mean death the person, the Incarnation of Death. Well Zane, the main characters name, shot Death in the head instead of taking his own life, thus he was forced to assume the roll of Death. When a persons soul was so close in balance, they were sent to a place called Purgatory, there they would exist untill the balance of their soul shifted good or bad and they could move onto heaven or hell. With the exception of all the paperwork they were doing in the book, the actual description is very close to what the catholic religion, (mine) also believes.

It's a word that also means in limbo, to wait, to not move forward, or backwards even I guess. It's a word used to describe the after life, but sometimes we find ourselves living this way and not even knowing it. I look at myself sometimes for instance. The half marathon I just did on the 13th of this month was symbolic to me, things began to change for me in my life last year around that exact event. I look now at where I sit, just one year later in my life, and what has changed? I've run a marathon, getting ready to run another here in 9 days. I've traveled to a few cities I'd never been to, met some new people. I took the position in my company that I hold now on May 4th last year. That's coming up too. I make the same exact wage I did the day I took it. Granted, they pay me well for what I do, some work, post on RWOL, write blogs, fuck around on myspace, lol. Which is exactly what I was doing when I started this job about a year ago. Don't get me wrong, I work my ass off, but I also have some leeway in my job, because I do as good a job as I do.

I was told a story on Wednesday night, one that kind of mirrored my life in ways. And as we talked for a while, I began to realize that I have left myself in my own little Purgatory, drifting, happy to live for the day, but not addressing tomorrow.

I should really start addressing today, but I think I'll start tomorrow...

The Taper Begins

So on Sunday I did my last long run prior to my upcoming marathon. 22 miles. As I did before my last (and only) marathon, I used the first 5 miles of the run to simulate the pace that I plan to begin the first 5 miles of the race. I went 9:10, 8:30, 7:45, 7:20, then down to 6:55, where I hope to keep my pace for the last 21.2 miles. I know 2 things, 9:10 will not happen during the race, it didn't in AZ and it wont here. Probably more like 8:30, 8:30 for the first couple miles. The other is that 6:55 for 21.2 miles probably will not happen either. In AZ, I ran 15 straight miles @ 7:00 before I started to fall off. This time I'm hoping for around 17-18 miles at my target pace, anything on top of that is gravy. This said, even if my times begin to drop off after mile 22, I'll still get home in under 3:10. I may be way off base as well, I may be able to hold that pace for the entire last 21.2 of the race, but right now, 12 days out. I am being realistic with my goals.

My 22 mile run went very well, I was stronger at the end of it than I had been at any of my other previous 20+ mile runs in this training session, or the previous. I did have a bit of a "euraka" moment a day or so prior. While coming off the Horsetooth Half last weekend, I ran Monday (8 recovery), took Tuesday off, then on Wednesday I had 15 miles scheduled. Usually I break up that run into at least 2 runs, because of work. But this time I had to do all 15 in a row, after an 11 hour day at work. Thurday and Friday both had double digit mile runs, and I struggle through both. The 15 straight in the middle of the week really took it out of me. I do a lot of miles when I train, but probably don't get the benifit I should because I split my runs. I have decided that as I prepare for Chicago, (or NY, god willing), that I may still run more than once a day, but my target mileages and workouts for each day will be done as one run. With the summer upon us and the weather nice, if I need to run 15 that day, I will do all 15 before work, not just 3 in the morning, then 6 at lunch, then 6 after work. I feel like I'm letting my body off easy, instead of maybe getting everything I can out of each work out. Something different anyways for next time. But maybe a little early to start thinking about the next one, at least till we see how this one turns out.

Anyways. I took my camera with me as I ran the last 17 miles on Sunday and took some pics around Ft. Collins

Old Town Square right across from where I work.

The First National bank building and the Key bank building. The 2 tallest buildings in town, lol.

I love this house up the street from where I work.

City Park Lake. They run the Firekracker 5k around here on the 4th of July.

City Park gold course. My favorite course in town. 16$ for a nine hole loop on all our city courses, suckers. :-P

Moby Arena where the CSU basketball teams play, and a view of the mountains from the common area here at Colorado State.

The admin building on the oval at Colorado State University. I ran a 5k here last year.

16 Days And Counting

So I'm about an hour away from taking off on my last 13.1 mile Friday run before my upcoming marathon.  It'll be a longer run, although not very fast, and I probably won't push myself a lot today.  When I finished my speedwork yesterday, it was probably the last real hard workout that I will do.  I have a 22 mile run scheduled for Sunday, but will do the first 5 as I plan to do the first 5 of the marathon, then will probably just jog and cruise for the last 17.  Just one more long run.  Now the question comes...am I ready?  Have I done everything that I could do to make myself successful on May 4th.  Probably not, but who ever really does?  It's more about have I done enough.  Hopefully so.  Most of the people I read about or know who are running marathons that day, from the Flying Pig in Cinci, to the Vancouver Marathon in...well I forget where that ones at :-p, to the people running here in my hometown of Ft. Collins in the Colorado Marathon, are tapering right now.  Resting, letting their bodies recover.  I am out pounding miles, even after a pretty successful race over the weekend.

Plus during all this here lately, my weight, which I worry about pretty much all the time, has dropped off very nicely here lately.  I'm down around 163 this morning and after my run today and everything all finished out, I'll probably end the weekend somewhere around 161.5-162, which is right about where I want to be when I race.  Even with all the miles before PHX, my weight stayed the same most of the time, while this time, it's dropped as I've trained.  I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing going into a 26.2 mile race, but I'll have 2 weeks to recover and try to maintain, so we will see.  I said to someone last night when she asked how my run went, that "running is stupid".  lol  It's not, I just think I'm ready for the race to come, and the 2 hour long runs and training sessions to be done for a while.

The Colorado Avalanche went up 3-2 on the Minnesota Wild in the NHL playoffs last night.  I love hockey, and am really starting to enjoy the playoffs, it's been a nice distraction in the evenings here lately.  Plus the Cubs are off to a descent start this year so that keeps my mind occupied as the days pass.  

Not much else here except to say that I'm off to run, happy Friday to everyone.  

My Sunday run will include my camera as I basically just run all over town, so a bunch of pictures to come in the next entry.  

Horsetooth Half Marathon Race Report

I ran the Horsetooth Half Marathon yesterday here in Ft. Collins and here's the race report that goes with it.

I woke up around 4:00 or so in the morning, just like I usually do, made my way to my gym and sat in the hot tub there for about 5 minutes or so, just to help loosen me up a little. I showered there and made my way to the place where I work, it's where I usually base all my longer runs and races out of anyways, and wanted everything to be the same as it usually is. I posted on RW for a few, got changed into my clothes, had a little coffee and answered some text messages. One asked what my goal time for the race was, and I realized that I hadn't really set one. Last year I ran this race in 1:37:49 and finished 73rd. It was THE race I had been training for too. This year it was just a little half marathon 3 weeks before my full marathon. Just a training run. Plus, on this course, how many minutes could I really pick up. I'm sure I'm a better runner this year, but it's still a tough course where the uphills are going to make your avg. pace climb. Anyways, I thought about how I was going to run this race after getting that text. And I decided that after the top of the 2nd hill, I was just going to cut it loose with all I had. Leaving me two more hills and about 5 miles of flat after Dam Hill. hve been training for a marathon, and it shouldn't be that big of a deal to be able to run 13.1 pretty close to all out. The most nervous part for me was that the course was the same as last year, the weather was too. Only one thing had changed and that was me, and it was time to find out how much I had improved. I met up with John Bender for a little while at the start line, told him my plan, we joked around for a while, then it was time for the race to start.

That is the race profile it you haven't seen it before. As the gun sounded and off we went, I started at the front and was passed by about 3/4 of the field in the first 1/4 mile. Pictured below is the first mile or so of the race.

I took it easy on Mile 1, clocking an 8:06 mile. The first hill is a bitch, and it eats you up. 8:14 at Mile 2. Not so much taking it easy, as much as the hills really influencing my pace. Mile 3 was 6:30. Upon reaching the first aid station between Mile 3 and 4 I took 1 of the 2 Gu packs that I brought. I learned during this race, that gel packs are not for me during a half marathon. At that speed, all they do is upset your stomach. I never took the other pack I brought. Note as well, I carried my own water, so I never even stopped at an aid station, Mile 4 was at 6:59, as I started up Dam Hill during that mile. Mile 5 netted a 6:57 mile and the start of the long run to Bingham Hill Road. Mile 6 was at 6:42, with the tail end of that mile starting the climb up Bingham Hill. Around Mile 4, me, another guy, and a girl started running together, and as we made the accent up Bingham Hill, we were talking a little, and it really helped us all I think. Mile 7 was at 7:19 with the majority of it taking the hills. As we came over the 2nd to last hill on Bingham and started the decent, my legs got a little rubbery but came back to me pretty quickly. Mile 8 was 7:26. Now from here on out, it's a gentle slight decent, and I'm just trying to do 7 something miles to get myself to the finish. Last year on the stretch that leads you from Overland and the start of the bike trail (about mile 9), I was probably in about 25th place when we hit that aid station. I finshed 73rd. I gave up that many spots in the last 4 miles. This year I lost 5 and gained 2 back. Mile 9 was 7:08, Mile 10 was 7:12, Mile 11 was 7:17, Mile 12 was 7:27, and Mile 13 was 7:22. And 43 seconds or so for the last .10. I finished in 66th place, up 7 spots from last year. And the total time was 1:35:34, just 29 seconds of my half marathon PR, and that was on a very flat course.

I think I could have probably been closer to about 1:32-1:33 on a flat even course, I also think my PR goes down with maybe 1 more days rest, or maybe a Thursday off, run a little Friday and take Saturday off approach. I might play with that a little next time. All and all, it was possibly the best race I've run to date. I am very close to where I want to be with my running right now. At this point I'm pretty much as ready as I can get for May 4th. I'll do big miles again this week, run a 22 miler on Sunday then taper. I'm very happy with yesterdays run, and very encouraged with the results.

Have a good day folks.

Dogs

The day Mica and I closed on out house after apartment living for a couple years together, I drove the moving truck to the new house after I got off work, said "have fun" then hopped in my car and drove down to Denver. While her and her sister carried all of out stuff inside, I was down picking up Sierra, my black lab. She moved into that house the day we did. Over the next 8 years or so, she's been a great dog. A hunting partner, a friend, a pillow from time to time, and now a bridge more than anything else. One day I came home from work and found a huge growth on her side, I took her to the vet and had it checked. Cancer was the diagnosis, and Sierra was operated on almost immediatly. That was 5 years ago, and you can still feel the divot in her side where she had a huge chunk of her body removed.

Two years after Sierra came Jasmine the Chocolate. The Chosen One as dubbed by my friends, the dog that could do no wrong. Jasmine is my dog through and through. I paid $1000 for her, her hunting lineage is awesome. Her mother and father are both Master Hunting Retrievers. I had hunted with both Jax and Max (mom and dad) before and knew I wanted a puppy from them. Hell I paid the 1000 before she was even conceived. Jaz can hunt, handle (where she can be guided by hand signals and whistle) and is the coolest little dog in the world. On the first day of our first hunting season together, the guy I was hunting with, hit Jaz with his pick up, pulling her under the L/R tire and pulling her hip out of its socket. After the surgery, she almost lost the leg to infection. Jaz runs with me from time to time in the morning when the situation allows it and I spend time with her every chance I get.

Riley belongs to Mica. A yellow lab, that I haven't really spent much time with. She's a cool little dog, don't get me wrong, but she hasn't been trained by me and she's wild still and has poor manners. Mica was given Riley at the time when our marrage was really coming apart. I had pretty much checked out of it at the time. We were living in the same house, sleeping in seperate beds. We never fought because I pretty much worked all the time and when I was home, I was sleeping, or just closed off. She needed something or somebody and so along came dog #3. Riley was mauled by a Chesepeke Bay Retreiver owned by the people who owned her before us. Her right eye still tears and she is missing teeth on the side that they had to do surgery on her to put her face back together.

Through all this, all three dogs are still alive, still living up at the house. On a day like yesterday, my day off from work during the week, I was able to go and spend the day with them. They are like children to me, and many dog owners are this way.

The person who is one of my best friends in the entire world, is living what could prove to be the toughest weekend of her life, as she faces having to put her dog, her baby, to sleep at the end of the weekend. Because we both love dogs, we talk a lot about them, hers and mine. We've never met each others, but feel like we know them personally. I thought a lot about her and her dog yesterday as I spent the day with mine. I'm sorry Chris. I don't know what else to say.

Race report on my half to come tomorrow.

5 X 3 = 13.1

So after taking yesterday off and lower mileage since Friday, I went out for a 5 mile run at lunch today. I still have 5 to run at the end of the day and 5 more tomorrow. Then I'm off till Sunday morning for my half marathon. When I train, I usually do speed/hill work once a week, a recovery run the day after my LR's and take one day a week off. During my LR's, I usually will do a section of them at MP, instead of a tempo run. For example, if I do a 21 mile run, I will do 7 warm up, 7 at MP, then finish the last 7 in a cool down, with the warm up and cool down somewhere in the 8:00-8:15 per mile range. Wednesdays and Saturdays re usually just mileage days for me. I usually just rack up about 25-30 miles those 2 days, paying attention to form, gait, and getting miles in without hurting myself, and without going overly fast. I am usually in the 8:00 minute range per mile on these things as well. Mostly because I'm usually tired and that's what my body will give me without really pushing it on days I'm not supposed to. I run fast on the days I'm supposed to, the one's I'm not, I don't. It's how I've stayed healty through 2 marathon training sessions when before I couldn't through a few 5k's.

So I stepped out for the first of my 2 five mile runs today. I never felt good, I never felt bad. I never really pushed myself that much, just trying to maintain and recover for the upcoming half. I didn't feel like I was giving any more effort than I would on just a normal Wednesday run, but my mile times dropped to about 7:30 per average. Rest and recovery are a beautiful thing people. I feel strong, ready to tackle this half marathon. I've struggled a little this week as it loomed. With all the miles I log during training, sometimes it's hard for me to gauge how strong I am, how fast I can go untill I taper. I have gone from very nervous to very encouraged with todays run.

That's all for today, cheers...

The Morning Fog

Where to start about the weekend. So I got up yesterday morning and did my long Sunday morning run of 10 miles. It has been a long time since I had a Sunday run that short. I slept in a little, came down to my work computer to pick up my Forerunner 205, posted a little on RW and took off. Left my IPOD sitting on my desk and realized it a few miles in, but no biggie. I left at aroun 8:45 wearing shorts and a t-shirt. One of the nicest mornings we've had so far this year. The run was good. My hamstring cooperated and is healing just fine, actually better than I thought. I went to my gym, did ab work and sat in the hot tub, then grabbed a bite to eat.

I awoke this morning to snow outside, and as I got everything together for the day, I went out to warm up my pickup for just a couple minutes, while I was inside having a bowl of Fruit Loops. I started to head to the gym, when I began to smell something sweet, then poof. All the windows fogged up and I couldn't see anything. Fucking heater core popped on the pickup. I thought when the intake was leaking on it before that it might be the heater core so I had already looked into what it took to fix it. 6 fucking hours. :-( It's actually in the process of going back together now, but some pics of what the pickup looked like.

Anyways, no biggie, just one of lifes little inconviences I guess. Can't have the truck smelling of antifreeze now, next month, or next year.

Take care...

The Calm Before The Storm

As I came down the stretch from yesterdays 13.1 mile run. I was thinking to myself, boy am I ready to taper. I've run a lot here lately, and am feeling it in my legs and body. I'm also just ready to run this fucking thing and get it done. After May 4th, I will run the Bolder Boulder, and am thinking about the half that goes with the Post-News Colfax Marathon, mostly just to keep my competitive juices flowing. I won't know till July if NY accepts me, or if I will be running the Chicago Marathon in October. What I do know is that I will be taking a break from training for a little while after this marathon.

One of the things that came up during my run with John yesterday was what did I expect out of this marathon, and it raises a lot of questions. I have no problem saying that with the training I've put in, and the course, that I feel like the 3:10 that I was chasing in Phx should happen. I sit here now with the question in front of me, do I run this race, knowing that by running it safely, that I can probably get what I need for my BQ. Or do I try for that extra push, that extra little bit, and try to get this done in under 3 hours. But with that comes the risk of buring out and possibly running a worse time than I did in Phx. I feel that if I ran the exact same pace chart that I did in Phx, that between training, being a better, more experienced runner, and having run a marathon before, that the crash that came in the last 6.2 miles there, should not happen. Don't get me wrong, nothing is in the bag, but I feel good about what I've done, especially in the last month and a half or so. Also, the subject of what would I do if the situation came up and I essentially ran the same exact marathon as Phx? What if I crash at mile 20 again, what if I run a 3:15? Where would I go from there? Obviously I would have to look at my training, but I have written each of my own plans, feeling that I know my body, and my schedule best. Do I turn to someone else's plan, or tweak my own, or what happens from there. With everything that goes into marathon training, each training session is very importaint, and if it doesn't work this time, can I afford to gamble again before Chicago? Lots of things were covered, although none could be answered at the time. When it was all said and done, we finished the run within about 30 seconds of what I told him we would when we first started. And I ran with nothing but a stopwatch running on my wrist. The coolest part was that just over a week out, on a very easy training run, John finished within 5 minutes of his time for this race last year, so his goal time of 5 minutes faster than last year should be attainable. Me on the other hand finished the training run roughly about 20 minutes slower than my race time last year. But what I was looking for out of the run was to find my rhythim on the hills. The right lean, the right stride, the right pace, and I found that. I know how to run flats, and the distance doesn't bother me either, so that's what I needed out of the run.

All and all, it was a great run. Enjoy your weekend, more later...

Me and John, (or John and Me, or John and I, whichever)

I'm taking off in about an hour or so do the last run of the Horsetooth Half course before the race next weekend. I'll start by saying on last nights last 3 mile run, I tweaked my right hamstring, bad enough that it does have me concerned, but after some time in the therapy pool and use of my Stick, it feels good enough that I'm still going to make the run without too much thought. I was thinking this morning though, with the exception of the half next Sunday, this will be my last real big workout and the marathon is still about a month away. After todays 13.1, I do 5 tomorrow and 10 on Sunday. Next week I will run, but will mostly be like a weeklong taper to rest me for the half. Coming out of the half I do have a big mileage week the following week, but nothing that will be too fast and too intense. It comes to an end with a 22 mile run that Sunday. But that one will be like my last one before PHX in the sense that I will run the first 5 miles at the pace I plan to run the first 5 of the marathon at, to get the feel of pacing myself out, then it will be very easy. I might take a camera and photo some landmarks around town. Lucky for me, in 22 miles I can pretty much see all of the meca that is Ft. Collins, Colorado.

Anyways, I plan to run this morning with John Bender. John is a customer in the auto shop that I work in. One day a little over a year ago, while he was in getting his car worked on, we struck up a conversation. It turned to running because he is a marathoner and I was finding my was as a runner then as well. We didn't really talk too much after that for a while, but at the start of the Horestooth Half last year, we saw each other and talked as the race got started. Then little by little, each time he would come into where I work, we would talk running more and more. I would listen to him, try to pick up little pieces of advice as I could. He has always been very complimentary of me and has great faith in my abilities. He was key to my success in Phx, and the oppritunity to run with him today is a huge deal for me. I'm really looking forward to todays run. We both are running the Horsetooth Half this year again. He is really working his ass of because he is running the San Francisco Marathon this summer, and in his 50's he's looking for one more BQ to try and run there in 09. Hopefully we'll get a chance to race together there too.

Have a great day everyone. Nothing but love...

Into Each Life, A Little Rain Must Fall

I got up around 4 this morning, just like usual. I wearily dragged myself to the dresser to grab my running gear and get ready to get on my way. Just 2 quick miles this morning, just to get my heartrate going. I would do the other 8 miles later in the day. I don't really like to run in the morning, I never have, but it's a ritual that I am getting more and more used to. Plus on the rare occasion, I love to get to take Jasmine the Chocolate Wonder Lab with me.

So this morning, when I stepped onto the sidewalk here in beautiful Ft. Collins, I looked around and the streets were wet, and it smelled like fresh rain. As I passed my pickup truck, there was water beaded on the pait and windows. I have no clue how much it rained, but it did. It smelled great and felt like everything had been washed clean.

Honstly, I do not like the rain. Almost everything I do for recreation involves being outside and rain doesn't really enhance anything like that. The signifigance of last nights rain is that it was supposed to be snow in the forcast. Finally the nights are staying above freezing. We get great days here all year round, but when the sun goes away in the winter and even in the spring, the weather gets cold. The first overnight rain for us means Spring has really sprung. And I couldn't be happier.

Enjoy your day. I am

The Nervous 3

So, after e-mails, texts, and phone calls yesterday, and after a quick trip to the hot tub at my gym. More on that later. I headed down to Dicks Sporting Goods last night to purchase my new running shoes. Well, they did not have the Air Structure Triax 10+ in my size anymore. Since it's last years model, they are just about out of them. So enter the Zoom Structure Triax 11+. Almost identical in look and build, except no air bag in the heel area. Blue and black are the color they had in stock. They gave me 3 pretty good miles this morning, but still have 12 more to do before the end of the day. Stay tuned.

The Structure Triax 10+ that I wore before this worked for me very well. As it was explained to me, as a beginning runner, who honestly was probably putting in too many miles in to early on in his running career. Without my legs being very strong, at least not running strong, when I would get tired, my gait would get out of whack, thus causing me to pull and tweak my muscles while my stride was not right. The structure shoe, while a little heavy and beefy for most long distance runners, provides me with the cushioning and support I need while running tired. I think after I recover from my May marathon, I may actually go another way, because my legs should be strong enough and my posture and form are much better now than they were just a few months ago.

And while we are on the Nike subject, is it just me or is everything they do anymore geared to running? When I was growing up, Air Jordan stuff was everywhere, basketball was what Nike pushed, and those were the shoes that they made and sold the most of. Every other commercial had Jordans mug on it selling 100$ sneakers. Once Jordan retired and basketball fell victim to the hip-hop image that it spent a decade building, all of a sudden it's all running. When Lance Armstrong decided not to bike the Tour De France anymore, how much money do you think Nike paid him to run the NYC marathon? He was their second most popular sponsered athlete after Tiger Woods, and I would bet that they banged on him pretty hard to do it, to try and bring them back to the forefront of running. I swore off Nike shoes about 13 months ago, then refound them with the Triax models. Strange how that happens.

Ok, off for another 6 in the new shoes soon. But I'm sure they'll be fine. Have a great day.

What Guides You? Logic or Feel?

A lot of my running career, (a little over a year or so, hahaha), like a lot of my life is guided by feel. How I feel about anything in any given moment, is how I make decisions. Besides running, the other thing that I really enjoy is playing golf. I love it, walking the course, being outside, the sun, the smells, plus the fact that it is very challenging, mentally. I am what you call a 150 yard 7 iron guy. That means the I hit my 7 iron about 150 yards. Progressively down there is a yardage associated with each club. I know this from time on the driving range, and previous rounds of golf. More often than not though, I will look at the distance I have left to go, not by looking for yard markers or landmarks, but just by looking with my eyes. It happens a lot when I play, where the guys your playing with will shout to you "138 out" before you pull a club. But at that given moment, I feel like the 8 iron wont do it, whether its the lie, how my body feels right then, or even the wind, and I'll grab the 7. Even though I know I am a 150 yard 7 iron guy. And more often then not I'm right. Although it goes against all logic. And more often then not, I don't even think twice.

I bring this up because of something that I posted on RW yesterday and actually brought up in a phone conversation with someone else, well ok actually 2 things I posted. First off, I let my Garmin keep track of my miles, and rarely do I look to see a monthly total, but I was able to post my miles for the month because I had my training schedule for my upcoming marathon in front of me, it had my daily logs, and I know for a fact I didn't miss a run. 284.3, and I took 6 days off and ran 3.1 only on the Sunday before St. Patricks day. Someone after that was posted had asked how often I went through shoes, and of course, like I said, that had been brought up before over the phone recently too. I still on the same pair that I ran my last marathon in....

I came back from Chicago last Oct. I had been hurt and not running, I decided to do the half that went with the Denver Marathon that next weekend. I was at the expo, picking up my race number and was looking at some shoes they had their. I was talking on the phone, trying some on and the voice on the other end of the line said, "just buy them" or something like that. So I did. I ran a half in them for their opening run and loved them. About a month our of Phoenix, I purchased a second pair. I trained in them all the way to the marathon, and am still in them. My dilema is that I know the shoes that I am running in are probably well over the 500 mile mark at this point, but they still feel good. I get no leg tweaks, no pains, no nothing right now when I run, except for the normal aches and pains that go with 70 mile weeks. I fought and fought with the New Balances, Adidas, Avia, and even previous versions of Nikes that I had bought. These have been great, and I'm afraid to change them this close, but I also know if I don't soon, I'll probably get to the point where it'll be too late before the marathon. I do know 2 things. The shoe has been discontinued so eventually I'll have to change. But also that this is by far the longest I've been healthy as a runner in my short career.

Logic or feel?