Week in Review

94 miles
20.5 mile long run
2 doubles
6 days in TX
3 AFDs (oops)

Once again, despite an insane week of travel and work I somehow managed to hit my workouts and mileage. Even better, I benefited from over half of it--at least some portion of six of those days--taking place on soft surfaces. At this point in the training cycle my body needs every reprieve it can get, and I have no doubt that removing my legs from the punishing pavement helped mitigate the damage done.

That said, with just five weeks until the Trials much of the hardest work is still ahead of me. I'll be presented with more logistical challenges next week, as I'll be traveling with a new sales rep in Nashville and Louisville from Tuesday until Friday. When I touch down Friday afternoon, it will be literally within minutes of my parents, who are coming to visit the magical fort for the weekend. While I can't wait to spend time with them and show them around Marblehead, the reality is that I won't have the luxury of stretching out my weekend training or venturing into the city to run with Emily and Teresa. It doesn't mean the miles won't happen, but I predict many runs that both start and finish by the light of my headlamp in the near future.

Interestingly, I had a conversation that indirectly addressed this topic while in Austin. I was at the hotel bar before dinner one night and ran into Liz Wilson, my friend and former coworker (and Hood to Coast teammate) at Brooks. In addition to being one of the most outgoing and energetic people I know, Liz also happens to have placed fifth at the marathon trials in 2000. Seeing as she knows a thing or two about marathoning, I decided to ask if she had any advice for me leading up to next month's 26.2. Though she didn't have much to offer in that department other than to "drink early and often" (an adage we were, ironically, embodying at that very moment, only not with water), we continued to talk training for several minutes. Like me, Liz has always pursued running and her career simultaneously, and even at the peak of her training she was otherwise gainfully employed. Hell, she ran 2:37 off no more than 80 miles a week simply because she didn't have time to double. Liz said she often considers what we do for a living a form of training in and of itself. The hours spent traveling and standing on our feet working at expos might not count as actual miles, but the weariness and exhaustion they induce on our bodies really isn't much different. It was an interesting perspective, one I'd never considered before, but it certainly makes sense. As I enter into another potentially draining week, I'll hold fast to the principle that each day's own unique challenges will serve to make me a mentally and physically stronger runner.