Happy Anniversary!

On March 23, 2003, I did something that I thought was a complete one-off... something I could've cared less to do ever again... something that pissed me off, because it meant that I couldn't go out drinking the night before. Something that I merely did only because some of my other friends were doing it too. 
~ I ran the Shamrock Shuffle.

I wasn't competing against anyone. I didn't care about time or placement. I was just participating in something that a shit ton of other people my age were doing. Oddly enough, it turned out that I did OK at it too, in spite of having to run half of the thing on the sidewalks because the masses on the course were so overwhelming. I finished the 8K in about 33:30.

I quickly added it up in my head, and realized that I had hardly trained at all for this stupid thing... probably a couple weeks, at best. It was one of the longest distances I had ever run too. I realized that if I had actually put in a little effort ahead of time, then I could run it a lot faster. Not knowing that the city of Chicago had countless other races throughout the year, I decided that I'd come back to the next year's shuffle and compete against my 33:30... and beat it.

That was 10 years ago, to the day over the weekend. 
Happy Anniversary, self.

Since then, I've become an obsessive addict. Competing against myself and others has propelled me though thousands upon thousands of miles, and countless races. I've met some incredible people along the way, seen the world, and done thing's that were incomprehensible to my 25 year old self back then.

My 10 year anniversary present over the weekend was a 23 hilly miles in Barrington on Saturday, which capped off a 100 mile week and 49 miles in about 40 hours.

In three weeks from today, I'll be toeing the line for my 3rd Boston and 16th marathon. 10 years ago, I didn't even know how many miles were in a marathon.  (I was definitely one of those guys.)

Like I said, I hit 100 in the last week. I'm cramming, and it certainly feels like it. I'm tired and want a day off, but it's not gonna happen. I'll shoot for another hundred this week, then pull back. It's been a far cry from the training that I had intended following Philly. I just couldn't do it once I got sick. I think I'm still able to pull together a respectable marathon though. I'll have one chance to truly test myself in a couple weeks with this year's Shamrock Shuffle. From there, I'll be able to better gauge what happens in Boston.

In the mean time, it's nice to reflect upon how my life has drastically changed over the last 10 years. I'd give anything to have it back and do it again, but it has certainly been an incredible run.

Trying to Salvage

To begin with, I'm still not back to 100% yet. After "clearing up" my ailments a few weeks ago, I dealt with another sore throat last week and today I'm coughing up a storm with a bit of a nasty head ache. Add to it, digestive track issues that just won't chill out. This "cold" of mine has been going on for about 6 weeks now. WTF!?!

That being said, I'm trying all I can to salvage my training for Boston. I've cut too many weeks short of miles, and now I'm forcing it where I can. I hit 78 last week... a far cry from what should've been my third week in a row of around 90 miles.

On the bright side though, 78 was an improvement from the prior weeks and didn't feel all that awful. I had a reasonable (though not easy) 8 mile tempo run last Monday at about 5:55's. Wednesday night had 8x800 @ 2:37's, followed by 2x 400 @ 1:12's. And I've had 2 long Saturday's in a row with some very strong progressions.

I bombed last night's tempo as a result of digestive issues. As a penalty, I re-ran the tempo today. I did 9 with 7 averaging 5:47. That's the fastest I've gone since pre-Philly. If the rest adds up, then I'll have 90 miles on the week and 100 over the 7 days between last Saturday and this Friday night's long runs. Cary is this coming Sunday.

All of this is night and day compared to a few weeks ago, when I couldn't run 4 miles without bonking. It may not be perfect, but I do have a silver lining: a monster base from the end of last year and that's giving me some cushion. It's possible that I can still run a respectable Shamrock and Boston next month. I have one month and 3 days until I toe the next marathon.