Holding on for dear life!

Dallen would have been laughing out loud this morning if he had seen me on the treadmill, eyes barely open, hands clutching the rails, hoping not to be shot out the back into another room. Went to bed the night before tired, woke up tired and sleepy, somehow made it down the stairs to the mill, walked the 1st 1/2 mile, jogged the next mile or so with the occasional clingons, and finished up the 4 miles at about 9:00 pace overall.

Why so tired? Simple answer: the dreaded mid-week 15 mile run was once again doing me in. This is one of the main staples of my running program and also one of the toughest runs to get in. It's hard to find the time to fit it in, hard to do in the middle of the week when often worn down by hills, tempo or interval runs. The weekend 20+ miler is never, ever, as hard as this run. So that must mean it's working; Nobby and Mike are right: 'training is supposed to be HARD' (duh!)! If you're just sailing along through the workouts and never feeling drained or tired then most likely it's too easy or you're not doing enough to get a training effect. BUT you'd think that after all this running it might just get a tiny little bit easier?

So... Weds was a 15 mile slog/jog around town in the middle of the day for a total of 2:09. The sun was shining again and I was a little underdressed in shorts due to the light northerly wind to go along with the low 30ies temp (+3C). The body was still tired from the 'fun' intervals on Tues (you always pay back for good days) and despite taking it slow and getting gatorade at the midway point, well you know...'a long and winding road'. That night I was too tired to type but managed to read a few blogs while relaxing. No volleyball either, was tempted but just couldn't get off the couch.

Today, a rest day with 2 easy runs. The treadmill adventure (above) for 4 miles in the morning and then an easy 6 mile loop around town before supper. My internal watch/gps is still working perfectly too! I was asked how long I'd be? 'Oh, about 50 minutes'... So six mile car measured loop, watch in my pocket, easy/easy pace but feeling decent, for final time of ... 50:57 would you believe? Maybe I don't need to shell out all that money for a fancy shmancy GARMIN 305 after all! Just use the little internal clock and effort meter that's already built in but be sure to feed it lots of beer and ice-cream ;-)

I almost forgot, here's the update on our new driver. Our 'baby' boy A passed his final driver's road test yesterday with flying colors. No major problems except for finding where the high beam switch was located. Despite being well prepared the parallel parking was not required and he did a simple back-in instead. Now A can take the cruise control off and drive like the rest of us while Dad forks over more dough to the insurance company. It's really nice to see your kids growing up!