I do apologize for being absent, but sometimes it seems that life just gets in the way. We had a wonderful family vacation to St. Louis and a trip back to Galesburg for a family reunion. But please do not worry; I have taken no break from my training. I ran on the treadmill in St. Louis and went on another run through some familiar areas in the town that I grew up in.
Running has been going great! I have run 11 miles each of the last 2 Saturdays, and will run that distance one more time this Saturday. After that I figure on running 12 miles for the next 3 Saturdays, and finally tapering off for the last 2 weeks before the race. I had a great tempo run today! i had a lot of trouble getting out of bed this morning because I had to take a Benadryl for my allergies last night, but once I got moving things went really well. I nailed the first mile at sub-7 minutes and then proceeded to run a total of 5 miles in 35:45, exactly 7:09 per mile. It really felt great!
I also got the chance to ride Roxanne the other night. My amazing wife was gracious enough to give me the night to go for a bike ride. So, I raced home from work, suited up, and headed out for a ride. I had a 25 mile route planned for an area north of town, but was quickly denied in the first couple of miles when I discovered the road was completely closed! So, I reconfigured my route and went for a 21 mile ride in an area southwest of town. It was a great ride, a little windy, but definitely not too hot. I was impressed how easy the ride went, and even more impressed with how easy recovery has gone. I haven't noticed the extra workout at all!
I have made one change that I think is helping my overall "good feeling" while training. After much contemplation, I have decided to not drink any alcohol during my training. Earlier in the year I had said that I would limit myself to 7 drinks a week, and for awhile that went swimmingly. But more recently, we had a couple of events that led to me consuming more than 7 drinks per week. My liver never really felt the increase and my weight was staying off, but there were a couple of Saturdays that were pretty difficult to get out and run. One time, I was still feeling pretty poorly on Monday. None of this was helping with the difficult training schedule. So, I decided to lay off the booze until I have completed my half marathon. If you know me, you realize that this is a pretty big sacrifice! I love beer! I love drinking beer! But I also love running, and one of them was going to have to give. So, this decision is definitely not forever, but for now there will be no drinking beer. Funny thing though, the half marathon I am running has a free beer tent at the finish line. So, pretty much 30 seconds after my race is over, I will be back on the sauce; I can't wait!
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