1,000 Miles and Counting

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I knew it was coming soon, but I totally missed when it finally showed up.  This year the 1,000 miles came a little quicker than last year.  Last year I didn't hit the 1,000 mile marker till the first week of November, however this year the achievement was made The first weekend in October.  If you would have asked me even a couple years ago if I would have ran a total of 1,000 miles ever I would have laughed at you in disbelief, but now I am nearing a total of 3,000 miles since I started logging.

Sometimes 20 Miles Is More Mental Than Physical

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I am not ready to get into a debate on whether physical or mental wins out more, but yesterday my 20 mile run was more of a mental challenge than it was a physical challenge.  Please don't read this the wrong way - I am not by any stretch saying is was physically easy, I am just saying that physically it was a done deal, but mentally I didn't want to even start because I just knew I was going to fail.

Three weeks ago I ran my first 19 miler of this marathon training schedule.  It was a challenge, but I don't remember thinking that I wouldn't make it (maybe I have already forgotten)  During that run around 13 miles I started to feel a tightness in my left calf.  I continued my run paying close attention to make sure it didn't get any worse.  It turned out to be the wrong decision and I should have quit at the first sign of something not being right.  (you can read more about it here) After all was said and done I ended up with two weeks of a lot of rest...... right in the middle of marathon training!  Not only was it right in the middle of marathon training, but was the two weeks around what was supposed to be my first 20 mile run, as well as the two weeks leading up to my mid-training half marathon race, the 13.1 Atlanta.

Another Two PR's - But Not For Me

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I can't believe the Cross Country season is almost over again.  I look so forward to this time of year and then it seems that it is all over as soon as it starts.  Now, sure, I would like to get my Saturday's back to do really important things like sit around, eat, and sit around some more...... but there isn't many other things I look forward to like I do Cross Country meets.  This is quite obvious when you find me driving 6 hours ONE WAY to watch my daughter's run.

This past Saturday my daughter's both ran in the Great American Cross Country Festival in Cary, NC just outside of Raleigh.  This was a very competitive meet, so much so that the winner of the boys and girls races both set new course records at 15:00 flat for the boys, and Aisling Cuffe won the girls race setting a new course record of 16:40 and was almost a full minute in front of #2.

13.1 Marathon - Atlanta 2010

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Today was the second running of the Atlanta edition of the 13.1 Marathon series.  I have been looking forward to this race since I ran it last year and set a new Half Marathon PR....... that is, until I injured my calf just two weeks ago.  Once I injured my calf I released any hope of another PR this year and just focused on getting my calf back to 100%.  I wasn't sure until about a week ago that I would even be able to run it.  I decided then that I would run it for fun, and intentionally take it easy since I didn't know if it would start acting up, and didn't want to risk re-injuring as I enter the last month of marathon training.

The morning started early, as most race mornings do, and we hit the road at 5:30 to make the trip down I85, over to Peachtree Road, and into the closest parking place we could find near Oglethorpe University.  I rode down with my neighbors who were also running the race.  The morning was very cool at 55 degrees, which felt even colder in Atlanta with the wind that didn't seem to let up all morning.