Slogging Through Marathon Training

The Seattle Marathon on June 27th looms over the horizon. Coming out of St. Anthony's in late April, I've turned primarily to getting my run mileage up to marathon distance. I had gotten in a couple of 10 milers and a 12 miler prior to last weekend. I was scheduled to run a 15 miler last weekend, but had to cut it down to a 12 miler to make it a buddy run with John and get back to my son's graduation party before it went overboard (it rained every day). Thus, I looked at my training schedule a little concerned as I missed my 15 miler and was staring at a 20 miler on the training calender. From 12 to 20: that's a big jump.

To add another monkey wrench into the mix, it rained the whole 3 day weekend. On top of all that, I've been up late watching the NBA playoffs about every night the whole month of May. I tend to be a night owl. With some great basketball to watch each night, it's not easy getting up at 4 0r 5 AM to get in a 20 miler before the South Florida heat sets in. I sleep in Saturday morning after seeing the LeBron James 3 point shot late Friday night. As it's either raining or threatening heavy rain, I delay going outside to run. I drop young son, Alex, at a friend's house and realize the temperature at 1:30 PM is around 78, downright cool for South Florida in May. Normally, I would not consider running outside in the afternoon in May, but the overcast skies and the relatively low temperature is tempting me. I get home and gear up to go out. In the 20 minutes it's taken me to get geared up, the sun comes out. I pull the plug on an outdoor run. Not wanting to risk getting further behind the training curve, I opt for the dreaded treadmill 20 miler.

I don't recommend this to anyone. I prefer getting out and seeing the world for my long runs. But the rain was scheduled for the whole weekend (which it did). So, I popped in Disc 1 of Season 2 of 30 Rock and watched 9 episodes over 3 hours. That's a lot of comedy. It was a nice distraction. In any event, I got the run done. I also ended up indoors for my 10K run this morning due to rain. Hopefully, I can run outdoors for my remaining long runs.

Running buddy John is away in Ireland on a golf outing. He's supposed to try to sneak in a long run, but I have my doubts as to whether he will get in much of a run. He'll have his work cut out for him on his return.

My son John's graduation was this past Tuesday. Turning 50 didn't make me feel old, but having a son who is a high school graduate sure does. At this moment, he and wife Salome are up in Gainesville, Florida for orientation for summer session at the University of Florida. As a UF alumnus, I couldn't be happier for him. Go Gators! Go John!

By the way, I highly recommend you read my buddy Wayne's blog this week. http://atrampathonabroad.blogspot.com. He had to fend off a moose attack on his daughter. He gets my nomination for father of the year.