Ready or Not, Here I Come

Eleven more days until Boston. Since my mental breakthrough last week my running has gone pretty well. I decided to push it as hard as I could last week and went with a hill workout, a tempo run, a marathon pace run, and an 18 mile long run at a good pace. After the 18 miler, I felt like I was getting there. On Tuesday, I ran a very fast hill workout while visualizing the Newton Hills and Heartbreak Hill. That did it. After 5 hard runs in a row, all my nagging aches and pains are back. I'm not at the point where I'm wearing bags of frozen peas all over my body but I'm feeling a little banged up. But that's a good thing. The goal is to break down your muscles and then let them rebuild, stronger, then break them down again, rebuild, repeat for 18 weeks. So I'm no where near as ready as I was for the Columbus Marathon last October but I'm confident that I can run a solid race.

I frequently hang out on the Running Times internet forum and today they are posting "Running Truths". I thought I'd share some of the good ones:

1. If you notice that every place you pass on your run smells like dog poop, you've probably got dog poop on your shoe.

2. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard.

3. Whether you think that you can, or that you can't, you are usually right.

4. The difference between the mile and the marathon is the difference between burning your fingers with a match and slowly being roasted over hot coals - Hal Higdon

5. Your friends/neighbors/family/co-workers think that anything longer than 3 miles is crazy. You will be tagged as the "crazy runner". Get used to it.

6. Mother Nature doesn't give a damn about you or your planned workout.

7. Nipple Band-aids are a man's best friend.

8. A bad run is better than no run at all.

9. You can bet your life that your favorite pair of running shoes is about to be changed by the manufacturer.

10. 90% of running is mental. The other half is physical.

11. You know you ran the best you possibly could when you barf and then pass out.

12. One sure way to avoid having to go #2 while running is to carry baby wipes with you; one sure way to end up in the bushes is to forget the baby wipes.