Back to the grindstone

You would have thought that since I was off of work for 12 days, I would have had more time to post here, but obviously you'd be wrong. It's not that I didn't have time, I just spent it doing more productive stuff.....like watching TV. So here's a recap of how my 2007 running year ended.

Things were going great last week and I was hoping to log 76 miles, a new weekly high for me. But, then, it all came crashing down on Wednesday (the day after Christmas). My stomach felt a little off when I woke up, but I figured it'd pass eventually. By 2 PM, it didn't feel any better, so I decided that I might as well just go running to see if I could power through it. Word of advice here: DO NOT try to run 14 miles when you don't feel good. I didn't puke, but I spent the next hour plus wishing I could so that maybe I could feel better. I ran 4 miles from my house before it finally got through my thick skull that what I was doing was stupid. Problem was, I was 4 miles from home and really had no choice but to run back. It was too cold to walk and I definitely wasn't going to hitch a ride, so I slogged the 4 miles back to finish the worst 8 mile run of my life. I then collapsed into the recliner and moved as little as possible the rest of the day.

I felt better on Thursday and was able to push through 12 miles (at the indoor track so that I could stop whenever I wanted). It wasn't the greatest feeling 12 miles of my life, but I ran it fairly fast, which seemed odd....I felt worse when I tried to slow down than when I picked it up. My Friday run was uneventful and I got tougher-than-usual 20 miles in on Saturday to finish with 70 for the week. The Saturday run also marked my 42nd day in a row of running, by far a new record for me. The streak ended on Sunday (voluntarily) as I rested up before launching into a Pfitz 18/70+ plan for Colorado on Monday. My first Pfitz run on Monday (a six miler) put me right at 300 miles for December, my first ever 300 mile month. I finished 2007 with 2905 miles, a cool 605 more than my stated goal of 2300 (apparently I'm not very good at projecting mileage).

So, it's January again, it's colder than crap, I'm officially training for a marathon and the Seahawks are in the playoffs.....does it get any better? Wait a sec, I'm also back at work, so yes, it does.