Next Weekend - Tupelo Marathon

Well I guess I had better get an update in on my training.

Last week I came down with a cold while I was out of town. I managed to keep running though which helped keep the congestion & stuffiness down. I'm feeling much better (all it takes is about 7-10 days), I think being relatively healthy helps the severity level and healing.

While out of town I did manage to get in a run with some of the GUTS (Georgia Ultrarunning & Trailrunning Society) gang. It was fun to run trails with that group - a great bunch of runners.

Last Saturday I ran with Gordon of the podcast Running To Disney. We ran out on some of the Mt. Cheaha trails. We started off where the Cheaha 50K starts and climbed a couple a good sized hills that averaged 400-500 foot climbs. I'm glad we were only in the foothills, it might have been a long day otherwise. I led the way clearing the spider-webs and spiders out of the trail path for my guest celebrity, almost gave a couple of big spiders a ride. That would not have been fun - funny to watch but not fun - I don't like spider-webs or spiders in my face. There were also quite a few trees down across the trail so we had a lot of stopping and climbing to get around or over the trees. We meandered out about 4.5 miles then turned around and came back. After the trail run, we went back to my hotel where I picked up my wife and Gordon's family met us at a local restaurant for brunch. We had a fun and it was great to meet Gordon's wife and sons. What better way to end a morning of running than to have brunch with new friends or as one of Gordon's son said we were "real" people - haha, like we're just imaginary friends. I thought that was funny.

This week, I managed to put in 50.4 miles for the week, after todays 20.22 mile run. My mid week runs were somewhat fast and it felt good to just get out there and push it. I actually managed to have some pretty decent runs & times. Paces were anything from 7:20 to about 8:15 on avgerage with runs of 5, 8 & 6 miles. Today's 20 miler was ok, overall. 1st 10 miles went well averaging about 8:55 or so and the 2nd 10 was about 10:30, give or take - probably give more than take - overall avg. pace was 9:50. It felt good to get the distance in before the Tupelo Marathon, even though it is supposed to be a long training run in preparation for a 50K in October. I will have to remember when I'm running next weekend at Tupelo - THIS IS ONLY A TRAINING RUN, NO RACING or at least try to remember. I sometimes have trouble doing that. If I feel too good (which I hope I do) I have a tendency to push it a little then burn out and I certainly don't want that to happen.

I've tried to get back on my "healthy" diet routine and I seem to be keeping the weight down. I need to drop a few more pounds but I think with the added mileage for this 50K training plan, I should do alright. Having the cold was actually a good jump start I think for the weight loss - just didn't really feel like eating.

Next post should be my report on the Tupelo Marathon. Until that time - happy running.