Livin' on a Prayer

OHHHHHHHHHHHHH - I'M HALFWAY THERE!

9 1/2 weeks down.

8 1/2 weeks to go!

I've reached the halfway point of training!  The runs no longer feel like a burden, but are something I look forward to each week.  

I'm no longer getting upset if I miss a run because I'm nervous about not training right.  If I miss a run now, I get upset because I REALLY wanted to go for a few miles!

The good news:  missing runs is happening much less frequently, and all of the long runs are making their way under my belt.  This includes last week's 10-miler in 87 degree heat.  It was by no means a glorious run, but I did it, and felt better for it.

Probably my favorite run recently was one that normally would have frustrated me to no end.  On Tuesday I went out for a 3 mile run with no particular pace goals in mind, but started feeling really good about half way through so I got adventurous and pushed on, looking for a familiar street.  Turns out, the street doesn't connect where I thought it does, and wound up running over Highway 101 and into an industrial park along the bay.

The tricky part:  I didn't quite realize that the beautiful sunset I was seeing meant it would start getting dark.  Fast.

I made it back to familiar territory before requiring the light of street lamps, but certainly learned that I took the ambient light of NYC for granted when I lived and ran there.  When it gets dark in Menlo Park, it gets DARK.

The moral of the story:  3 miles turned into an adventurous 5 miles, and my pace didn't suffer all that much as a result.  Turns out there's still a lot of joy to be found in running, and it's not always based on accomplishing a particular time, pace, distance or split goal.  

Here's to 8 more weeks of that!

Making Up for Lost Time!

It was inevitable.

Ladies n’ Gents, the oh-yea-I-said-I’d-keep-a-blog-about-training-for-the-marathon-and-then-did-very-little-with-it blog post!

Rather than lament my general malaise in the blogosphere, I figured I’d just hop right into some highlights of training so far.


If a Tree Falls in the Woods . . .

Or, if your iPod is really lame, and no one else can hear it, does it make you uncool?

In other words, a song from a Disney movie has picked me up mid-run on more than one occasion. But I do still have the ‘Chariots of Fire’ theme . . . that makes me cool, right? Right!?


Highs and Lows

Not in terms of altitude. In fact, Menlo Park is pretty flat. But, I’ve already had runs where I made up my mind that this would be my last marathon and runs that made me think I can’t wait to run another one after Chicago.

Low: Just this past Saturday I struggled through 4.5 miles at 10 minute/mile pace. In other words, I walked a lot.

I can’t blame any one factor—I overslept so I had to run during the hot afternoon, my diet the previous days was pretty shoddy, I hadn’t run in a few days, my lower back was bothering me, I went out too fast. . . in other words, I wasn’t training as smart as I’d set out to. It wasn’t until I had the moment of clarity with 0.5 mi to go that I realized it didn’t matter if I looked good doing it, but I just needed to finish my run. And I did.

High: The next day (today), I ran 13 miles at a faster pace than the previous day’s disappointing 4.5 miles.

I had one of those amazing runs where I just . . . went! I took a tour through downtown Palo Alto, Stanford, Menlo Park and spaces in between. I ran by a summer camp group playing ball games and laughed at memories of being 8-years-old, and by other runners and cyclists who returned my fist pump of encouragement. It was awesome, and there was so much at work beyond the muscles in my legs!


Buckle Up!

I never imagined needing one (mostly because training for the last marathon took place in the winter in NYC where hydration was only a street vendor and $2 away), but I finally picked-up a fuel/hydration belt. At first I thought I looked like a goon as I started my first run wearing it, but by mile 6, I was thankful for it . . . and convinced myself that wearing it made me look kind of legit!

So, now I buckle into my water bottle and a goo, and go go go!


I’ve Got . . . Miles . . . in Different Area Codes

So far I’ve run in California, Chicago, Boston and New Hampshire. Woo!


I Have a Website!

Now you can donate directly to my fundraising efforts for the GBS-CIDP Foundation International at http://www.gbs-cidp.org/andrewstingerfundraiser.html.

Oh, and don’t worry if you donate and the thermometer doesn’t rise up automatically. It’s updated at regular intervals, but not in real time. Thanks!

Until next time (which I promise will not be in the very distant future) – make good decisions!