Countdown

Less than four days to go before I set off on the Oregon trail...I mean the Eugene Marathon. I'm trying to focus at work but between checking the weather predicted in Eugene that day and rethinking my race 'strategy' there is not much left of my soul for talk writing. Yes, I agreed to give a talk this Friday to the Northwest Genetics Exchange group. It will be short and I'm scheduled first in the day so then I can get my things together (my things are my people R, J and T), and head on out to Eugene. The traffic had better not be the mess it was last year...Friday afternoons are always terrible though in my experience.
My last week has been 12 on Saturday...nice run, nice weather. 3 on Sunday. No swim or bike or anything on Monday - rest I think it's called. Tuesday a very fast 4.5. Today I toned it back down to 3 easy. Tomorrow another rest day (though I will bike to work). Friday 2 or 3, I don't think anybody is counting anymore, rest on Saturday and then the big day itself!
Strategy. I'd like to finish, and think I can finish, in several minutes before the clock strikes five hours. This would require the temp to be perfect, me to feel perfect etc. There is a 4.5 hour pacer and a 5 hour pacer. I think I'll play it safe (boring you mean?) and stick with the five hour pacer, if by some miracle I feel fantastic in the later parts of the race I can kick it up a notch...and then fall by the wayside perhaps? Nerves, nerves. Can't wait for the race, I'm expecting to enjoy it, can't wait to have done it, worried about what next.

Pre

Finally got to see Prefontaine the movie. Meant to watch it last time before the Eugene marathon but it didn't happen. I think they really just want us to see how cerebral a sport elite running really is. Everybody gets dealt their own random hand when it comes to bodies but then it is up to your mind to decide where that body needs to go and how quickly it should get there. My only criticism of the film is that it focussed more on his youthful beer consumption than on the hard core training day after day that must have got him to that level. I just want to know that I'm not suffering more than he did in training, in order to still be slow.

Speaking of training...I'm truly tapering. I swam on Monday and today, no running. During the week was 4.5, 6, 4.5. Tomorrow is just to PCC and back 12 miles, I'm not expecting too much I'll take it nice and easy. On Sunday J and R will run the Boardwalk 5K, T and I will be cheering them on. This time next week we'll be in Oregon...not long now till the race.

Oompa Loompa

Reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to T right now...I love that story so much. J has read it a billion times himself but he can still be heard sniggering from the top bunk at the jokes and more often than not he's hanging over the side in a scary way to see the pictures too. We just read about the square sweets (candies over here) that look round and then the chapter where Veruca and her parents are sent down the 'bad nut' chute. The only problem is with the songs, I have to sing them out loud with no idea of what kind of tune I should be singing them to...the boys don't mind my meandering tunelesness though so it's okay.
15 miles yesterday to start my taper...the first seven - yes seven, miles were absolutely dire. It was cold and windy with hail, rain and snow vying for a place in each mile. Spring in Seattle! My left calf felt like a canon ball. Everything eased up at the half way mark and I made it home merely disgruntled. 3 miles today...in the afternoon really a bit too soon after lunch, went swimmingly. Really sped along. What is going on?
The boys have started doing track and field again...I love the fact that they run fast, some part of that must have come from my side of the family, maybe it just skips a generation.
So I was looking to see if that really is my best running picture (it is). I found pictures of my finish at last years Seattle Marathon and then suddenly realised the guy sharing my finish line photo not only looks young but actually also looks like a runner. Several maneuvers later I figured out that he was 32 years old on race day and finished the same time as I did. Instead of just glad to be finished while knowing that his time was sort of rubbish he had his arms in the air as though he'd just won. Of course he had...the marathon is a challenge of mind against matter and his mind had hauled all his matter 26 miles and then some to that finish line. It made me think that I should be more proud of my achievement rather than squashing my herculean efforts in training and on race day with the sad old 'slow' word.

on the crest of the hill

Looking forward to the taper which officially began as of Sunday's last long run of 23 miles. Had to be Sunday this week since Spring Skiing could not be missed according to R. Our first and maybe last warm spring day happened this past Saturday and we hit the slopes down at Crystal (see video). Jackets and gloves were unnecessary but of course we took them along anyway and tied it all around our middles while the sweat trickled it's way down our backs. My first ever trip up the Rainier Express lift when the view was out. Corrr! mountains everywhere and Mt. Rainier just one step and a hop away. I proceeded to awkwardly descend. Never gone on a blue first thing, my legs were wobbly from nerves and too much running...(50 miles this past week). But I got down with not too much trouble. The rest of the afternoon was spent mostly T and myself skiing Forest Queen Express while R and J took on a couple of double blacks. So we've graduated from being able to do Discovery by ourselves to being left alone together on the proper mountain...hurrah!
Not blogging so much this week, computer is still making strange noises.
So far though the taper has not really happened. The weekday mileage this week is much the same as before 2, 6, 8, 6, 3, I'll only see the difference on Saturday with a long run of only 15 miles, better go well cos this morning's run was slow and choppy. 23 miles on Sunday went absurdly well. Didn't take too long (for me) and the weather was fine, read cool, with no rain. Took a couple of Accelgels along, key lime and chocolate at last something that tastes decent. Helped out the crumply man on Sunday morning. he wasn't at the bus stop as I approached, I reasoned that it was Saturday after all. then a bus swung past the stop and around the corner and I heard a familiar voice yelling out. There was the crumply old man, he'd missed his bus. I waved at the bus driver and pointed to C.O.M. Seattle metro drivers are such a nice bunch, he stopped the bus and waited.

21 miles 27 days

The best run of my life yesterday. Long run of ~21 miles give or take a foot or two - maybe take my toes since they are still sore. Under 4 hours...on a training run let's hope this bodes well for Eugene in just 27 days time! I'm not sure what was particularly good about yesterday but I cruised the entire distance. Food was right, temp and clothing was right, belly did not fail me. No walking breaks and fair skimming along at times. A 49 mile week in all...the most ever.

R tells me that the cake I made today needs to be written up. J wants to know if it has a name, I will call it the 'left over fruit - cake'.

Recipe: 2 mashed bananas, 2 oranges peeled and cored and cut into small pieces, a cup of oatmeal, a cup of almond meal, half a cup of date sugar, half a cup of honey, 2 large eggs, some milk, 1/4 cup oil, 2 cups gluten free baking mix, crushed seeds from a cardamom, vanilla essence. Mix it all together with milk to spreadable consistency, and spread on a large baking sheet. Top with three leftover apples that have been cored, skinned and sliced. Finally take another cup of gluten free pancake mix add an egg, 2 oz melted butter, tablespoon of sugar and a very large handful of golden raisins. Mix this up separately and then spread over the apples in a randomish sort of way. Put the tray in the oven at 375 until baked and golden looking. Serve dredged with powdered sugar and cut into rectangles.

running fast

A bit of an anomaly for me...the title that is. As you know I don't run fast so in fact the term is used in a relative sense. Saw pink lady with blond frizzy hair again on the trail today. Got to run later in the mornings when it is light this week on account of J and T being on Spring break, no buses to catch or lunches to make most days. Back when I first started this running thing I would run on Tues and Thurs mornings, almost always on the trail. More often than not I would see a woman dressed in a pink fleece sweatshirt, with permed blond hair running along at an equally excruciatingly slow pace as mine. I see her sometimes now and we always greet each other with a 'morning' or 'have a nice day'. In all the years I've seen her out there we have always somehow been running in opposite directions. Yesterday in the last but one mile of my six I saw her ahead of me...she's lost quite a lot of weight but she doesn't run any faster. I didn't feel like spoiling my story of her being the mother of five kids, bored at home, she runs to forget. I didn't want to talk to her and find out anything real about her. I like my made-up stories just as they are. So I put on the racing brain and sped (all relative remember) along, turned to say 'Hi' and then did a serious tempo run, a breath to every two steps until I turned off the trail. I'd left her way behind and you know I think that's the first time that has happened. It felt really good to be running 'fast'.
Still plodded my way through the two miler this morning...what is it that I need to motivate me to a faster pace? Pink lady with fuzzy blond hair?