The Road to Boston (week 8 of 16)

I'm counting this as the mid-term break.  I did not run a step last weekend - a combination of thunder and lightning, Brownwood duty and plain old lack of motivation did me in, and I did nothing at all.

And what's up with the motivation?  I have no idea, but it's suddenly gone South.  Nancy is putting me to shame - she gets up at 4:30 most mornings to work out (and you can tell because she's looking really good), whereas I have to drag my lazy butt out of bed to grind out runs that are nowhere near as easy as they seemed a month ago. I have a nagging fear that I have peaked, and I'm now on the slippery downslope.  The good part of that is that I have more than enough time to regroup, come again and peak once more for Boston.

And another spanner in the Boston wheel is a lot more business travel coming up.  In the next month I will be heading out to Virginia, Arkansas and North Texas.  I will have to keep my discipline, zip up the old man suit and just get out there and do it.

In other news, I am reading "Into the Silence" by Wade Davis (author the "The Serpent and the Rainbow").  It is the story of George Mallory - taking apart the legend that surrounds him, and going into painstaking detail, not only about his legendary Everest expeditions, but also the motivations and political posturing of the age.  It delves into the Great War, along with the implications and attitudes of the Raj and the British Empire.

The human cost of trench warfare is unimaginable, and described in vivid detail.  I remember my grandfather telling me stories of being in the trenches when I was a boy, but I didn't truly appreciate it then.  Now that I would, he's no longer here to tell them - funny how that works.

While fascinating, it is a huge book.  I am a fast reader, but I have been working on it for weeks and am still nowhere near half way through.  It is one of those that I may need to break up and come back to in bits.

Anyway, on to the training log.

Saturday 18th February
Woke up to thunder and lightning and the prospect of a trip to Brownwood.  Not motivated.  The zipper on the man suit broke right off, and I lose my 100% Febulous record.

Tuesday 21th February
5am, 48F, foggy and humid.  Finally got my butt back into gear, and met up with James for a pace run.  Dang, I seem to be trying twice as hard only to go a lot slower than I did a month ago.  What's up with that?  Still, we managed 7 miles in 54:47 (7:49 average), while we both enjoyed a good old moan.  Fantastic!!!

Thursday 23rd February
5am, 60F and humid.  Relaxed run around Mueller with Clea - she is recovering from pacing the marathon last weekend, I am carrying a slight hamstring strain.  Knocked out 7 miles in 59:43 (8:32 average).