4 weeks to Lean Horse

If I didn’t keep a running log it might be difficult to go back and piece together the week of running before the wedding.  Jewelia and Tyler are married and somewhere on the California Coast I presume.  There was surreal light on the Oregon Coast for the wedding, William Bragg, an amazing Salem Photographer has posted one shot from the wedding, we all can’t wait for more.  I set out to run an easy 8 miles last Monday and let myself get sucked into 8 hill repeats at Bush Park in the middle.  Wednesday was one of my toughest 20 miles home from work runs in quite a while.  Hectic day at work, not enough to eat that day, hot, grouchy, no energy from step one.  At mile 5 I said to myself, “self, what’s the worse that happens, you get home at 8:00?”  Things didn’t get any better from there, but they didn’t get any worse.  I’ve got 7 long runs left between now and Lean Horse, they aren’t all gonna be perfect.  I had a very good chiro visit and very painful massage on Thursday and ran 9 miles in Lincoln City Saturday morning, pretty fast.  I’m not running fast very often these days and it felt really good.  I said when I got back, “I could have raced today”.  Then I found out good friends Bill and Steve had finished first and second at the Liberty House 10k in Salem that morning!

I’m continuing to experiment with foods.  Everything I ate on Wednesday I didn’t like, but that might just have been me, I didn’t like anything Wednesday.  A 6 hour night run, back to back 20’s and then 4 other 20 milers and then I better be ready.  As I have no real idea what’s ahead of me, I feel ignorant saying this, but I feel ready.  My weight is dropping but strength is staying.  I was 148 this morning and I’ve never been this low, this far away from a big race.  I’ve also never felt this strong at this weight before.  I’m pretty confidant in the training I’ve done so far, and what’s left as far as training goes doesn’t scare me.....well the 6 hours at night does a little.

For the week.  43 miles with a long of 20.  My legs feel really good after an easy week and the stress of the wedding behind me.  I’m looking forward to a week where running is the challenge!