So yesterday marked the completion of the fifth week of training. That means there is only four weeks left till the Harrisburg Half Marathon and 13 weeks till OBX. I am feeling a little more comfortable about the Half Marathon. Yesterday morning I ran 13.1 just to try it out. I about killed myself just to get it in two hours. Hopefully I can shave some more time off before the race. Right now other than sore ankles, I’m feeling pretty good. The additional five miles I ran yesterday evening probably didn’t help much with that. But, you know me… never claimed to be the smartest guy out there. I did however catch up with where I needed to be for my goal of 1000 miles in 2013. Last week I ran 37 miles which put me at 615 miles for the year.
Last nights extra free miles were actually part of a little birthday party. The Fayetteville Running Club turned five years old. So in celebration we ran… I know imagine that. We had a route for our Couch to 5K members, a 5K route, and a 5 miles route. Of course I picked the 5 mile route because it wasn’t like I had run 13.1 miles earlier. The routes wove all through downtown Fayetteville. Our event hosts, Teri and Zef, do an awesome job setting up a run. Prior to the run they go out and chalk arrows along each route so runners don’t get lost. We had a pretty good showing so there were runners all over the place last night. After the run we all met up at Huske Hardware House for some appetizers and beer (Carbs)… and cake. But, I’d rather get my carbs from beer over cake. If your reading this and thinking to yourself…. “Self, I should really join a running club”, then what are you waiting for? If you want a little extra motivation to whip your butt into shape, or just want to log in a few miles, or just want to meet strange and wonderful people who REALLY enjoy a lot of running, then FRC or your local running club is the place to go. I know FRC has helped a lot in me getting where I am now. Running Clubs provide motivation, accountability, friendship, and good times.
Now on to the start of week six. The “plan” calls for 26 miles this week with the LSD run being 9 miles. My body is ready for a bit of a break at this point. The part that sucks is that I have to leave Wednesday on a trip for work and will be gone for about two weeks. I now get to face the challenge of keeping up with a rigorous training schedule while traveling. Hopefully I will have more options that the treadmill at a hotel. I know some of the guys I work with think my running is a bit extreme so I’m sure I’ll be getting after it alone. Not to worry, I’m won’t let something like that slow me down.