"Running is a mental sport...and we're all insane!"
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The training for the Boston Qualifiers is coming to a pinnacle point in their training this week. This is the last 20 miler on the plan. After this last run, there is 3 weeks of tapering until Huntsville & Dallas on December 12th & 13th. The last long run is at marathon pace + 15. Sarah & Wren are currently running their 20 miler at the Columns as I write. My sister Tracey might have already run her 20 miler and I need to follow up on her. Bob & Jay, The Dynamic Duo, are hitting the streets of Alpharetta at 3:45AM Friday morning to complete their long run. Ann Marie will be running her 20 miler on Saturday at the Columns as well.
I cannot say this enough of the fortitude that each one of these athletes has endured over the last 15 weeks has been amazing. Each one of them had their doubts on their abilities to accomplish this training at the start, but over the past couple of months, I have seen this doubt turn to assurance in their abilities to run at these speeds. Week and week out every one of these runners has learned and appreciated that running at this level is just not a physical attribute but a mental one as well.
Once the run reports start to come in I will update the blog on the marathoner’s achievements on the last 20 miler.
Last night was the pre-20 miler dinner for Sarah. Sarah and Grace had a meeting at the church at 6:45PM so dinner needed to be prepared, we needed to eat and clear the table so they could get to the church. The meal was a balance of protein, carbs, grains and veggies. Whole Wheat Pasta, Sauce, Grilled chicken, Herb Bread, Spinach Salad and of course a glass of wine.
After dinner and when the two ladies took off for the meeting, I promised Ellie that we would play a game after she took her shower. Ellie and I sat down for a mean game of “Rat-A-Tat-Cat”. It is a fast-paced card game utilizing your memory and math skills in order to score the least amount of point per game. We both enjoy a healthy dose of competition as we battled back and forth on winning hands. After seven consecutive games, we called an end to the event and we both headed up to prepare for the night.
Ellie reads for 20-30 minutes every evening before bed while I organize my “stuff” for the next morning. We are both creatures of habits on schedules, she likes to start to read at 8:00PM, and I like to have all my “stuff” laid out and ready to go by 9:00PM.
The night ended with Sarah, Grace and I watching one of their favorite shows, “Glee”. I have to admit it is a good show. The characters are good and the singing is entertaining. However, I would give up watching Glee for a action, blood and guts movie any day of the week. I do not get to watch too many of those kinds of shows with 3 females in the house.
The morning brought another day in the pool. The swimmers were sparse this morning with a number of the regulars M.I.A. Jeff has been very sporadic in the pool but I attribute his lack of pool time for sleep time these days.
Coach Mike’s workouts have been lower in distance the past couple of weeks. This morning was:
300M Warm up
150M Non Free
150M Drills
4 X 500M’s on the 8:45’s broken up into:
200M Fins with Paddles
100M Fins
200M Freestyle
8 X 25M’s all out with a 10 second RI
200M Cool down
I knocked out the first 500M with over 1 minute of rest. I decided to trim the time to 8:30’s, which is not fast, but less rest time. My motivation was I needed to head home to drive Grace to a Student Council meeting since Sarah had to meet Wren for the run.
If running is insane, then I ask, “what is all of this car-pooling called”? Is this a sign of getting older. As I wait in the drop off line at the school with Grace about 30 cars deep I just do not recall the amount of shuffling kids to school like this when I was young. Granted we have to drive Grace once a week to school, the other days she takes the bus. As a kid you took the bus and if you missed it you rode your bike or walked and if that was not going to work you went nervously to your parents and asked for ride. After the scolding, they would take you, swearing this was the last time. There as many activites as back in the day, why all the picking up and dropping off? I was active in school and I do not remember my mother or my father driving us all over Timbuktu morning, afternoon and night. Are kids these days allergic to buses?
The running must be messing with my mental facilities because I am converting to an Old Dude, stating, “when I was a kid”… We all have been there.
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