Sixteen

First, let me say that selling one's house does not do well for one's training schedule. You've got to be kidding me with this. Last week, the house went on the market late Monday night - by end of Saturday I think we'd had, like, 10 showings. All of which is great - totally what you want. 'Course, no offers in any of that, but whatever, these things take time. But since I work at home, I'd get the calls for the scheduled showings. I'd then do a quick tour around the Estate to tidy up, load the dogs and cat into the car, and go find some place to be for an hour. Some days this would happen two or three times - that's 2 to 4 hours away from my workday. So then in the evenings I'd have to make up work, and it would come at the expense of working out. By Saturday I was so worked up with house-selling frenzy, and so mentally unstable from not having a single workout, that I think everybody around me wanted to ring my neck. These are some seriously crazy times. I'm grateful I don't have Ironman this year. I just don't know how it could be done, certainly not to my obsessive compulsive standards.

But - yesterday I was finally able to get out for several hours and knock down 16 miles. My longest mileage to date, and strangest of all is that I felt really good. I'm running stronger right now than I deserve, with my spotty training the last 6 weeks. I think I can only attribute it to a pretty solid base, January through March. Add to it the weather (yesterday was perfect, and I was out in shorts and a tshirt for the first time all season...5 days ago I ran 12 miles in tights, gloves, and hat), and I haven't been on my bike hardly at all this season. That will hopefully change this week, depending on house showings.

Anyway, 16 miles, at a consistent pace in the 9:40s/mile. I was never suffering, never pushing hard, never going outside myself. If I'm running that well with this limited training, it makes a guy wonder what he'd be accomplishing with some damn consistency in his life, but whatever - these aren't the days of consistency, and I've made my peace with it. Still don't like it, though.

Best of all, though, and I don't know why this always sort of surprises me, but after my run I just felt recalibrated. Lighter. Better. Not so obsessed with this house stuff. Not so consumed with the what-ifs of it all. Lighter in my life. Not so thoughtful about the minutae. It's not like I dissected anything on my run, or gave any of these things tremendous thought. It's just like the run kind of shakes everything in my head loose a little bit, and they filter out and sift through a little in the course of the mileage. By the time I'm in the shower afterwards, life wasn't quite so overwhelming. Good stuff.

So - I have my first sprint tri in about 3 weeks, and I have zero expecations for it. I'm just going to go out there, enjoy the day, and take it as it comes. I have about 3 weeks left of real running, too, before I start to taper for my May 19 marathon. If I can get up to 20 miles by next weekend, and maybe max out at 22 or 23 in the next couple weeks, I think I'll feel as good as I can expect to feel. If I can't get in that mileage - well, my longest run for IM training was 18 miles, so I'll just have to find ways to cope.

So that's it from my end of the sphere for now. A shout out - my friend Ali is running her second Boston Marathon today. I'm getting updates on my email all day, so I'll keep you apprised. She's also apparently running in a monsoon out there (one thing I can tell you from when I lived in Boston - NOTHING turns a meteorologist on more out there than when they get to use the word "Nor'easter". Seriously. It's like, weather porn for them. They lose their minds with glee, much like weather-people out here get in a lather when major rush-hour snow is expected, or when we have a summer thunderstorm of significance. Break into programming! Execute cool crazy graphics! Send reporters to the scene - "Belinda, I'm here in Eden Prairie where you can still here the thunder rolling behind me. Moments ago, it was raining, and there are unconfirmed reports that a tree was struck by lightning!" Deploy the rain slickers! Send in the clowns! Wheee!) today, so everybody send Ali good vibes that she has a decent race, and that she brought inflatable arm floaties, in case it gets to that point.