Oh, that's right...I don't like running!

I've discovered something about running over the last week, it sucks. I know that sounds a little negative and certainly it's not the best conclusion since I am still training to run a marathon in September. I am sure things will start looking up again, but the last week of running has been B-R-U-T-A-L, brutal! Last Sunday I ran a 10-K. While I was glad to finish my first 10-K, I ran pretty slowly since the course was crazy hilly. We have been training on mostly flat land and I wasn't prepared for all uphill/downhill, all the time.

Since I didn't do that well on Sunday, I thought that this week's training runs would be good. Well, I "ran" 4 miles on Wednesday and had to walk most of it since my calves/shins were screaming after mile 1. This weekend I was supposed to run 7.5 miles, but it was pretty clear that this wasn't going to happen without medical intervention and/or being carried on someone's back the last few miles. So, I ran 5 miles instead and am amazed that I continue to get slower with each run, even though I am not running longer distances. We're headed to Phoenix on Wednesday, so I will be doing two of my runs in sunny (hot) Arizona and that should be interesting.

In an effort to focus on the positive, I ran/walked 5 miles today instead of sitting on the couch. I am at 9 miles for this past week and 23.2 miles in the last two weeks. I have run 79.2 miles since we started straining in January, despite having sat out for four weeks due to illness and a knee injury. That's more miles than I have run in my life prior to our 1/1/09 state date. I may not be progressing as fast as I would like, but I am still pretty amazed when I look at the mileage. Within the next two weeks, I will reach the 100 mile mark of training. That's pretty awesome for me...

P.S. As I type this, it dawns on me that my dad (clearly not 100% sane) ran 100 miles in just over 24 hours during an endurance run several years ago (see www.ws100.com).