Quality Miles

Topic: All The Miles From Here to There
Key Words: Incontinence, Virgin, Curse or Hex
Word Count: 599
Next Likely Topic: Saving $62.50 A Month - A Progress Report

Happy Birthday to Lynette who turned somewhere around 25 or so today (hee hee, welcome to the club :). I personally think that until at least until around 50, there's something good to look forward too. At some point though, the shadows of incontinence and apple sauce for dinner loom large; until then, many good milestones to pass.

No running since Monday of last week because of a) the nasty weather, b) a bit too much sympathy for my hammy in my right knee after sprints, and c) VEGAS BABY, OH YEAH! My return to gambling after a respectable hiatus went fairly well; I lost $36 over the weekend, and I'm quite sure I drank more than that, so I finished in the black. Too give a nod to timing and lady luck, my only winning session came at the craps table when I stumbled across a college kid who had clearly never played before ("What are these dice things?"). Legend has it that "Craps Virgins" will made loads of money for you, since the casino gods bestow them with luck to hook them into the game for life. This kid got his share of luck, as he was unable to do anything other than make me and everyone else money! So keep plugging away at whatever you are doing, you never know when a Craps Virgin will come along!

Back to running. I looked over the remaining weeks until Chicago; they are getting fewer and fewer. Since I have a short amount of time, and since I'm nursing my 27 year old body (you know 27'ish) through this training season, I'm going to focus on "quality miles". I don't really care how many miles I get in a given week, I just want some variety, and I want them to count for something. Therefore, the random four miler at Memorial that would likely do little than anger a body part is probably out, at least until I feel more capable. Instead, I'll try to cross train by doing things like riding my real bike, the stationary bike, or slogging away on the elliptical machine; these things will give me some aerobic kick, but none of them have proven to anger my legs very much. I would like to get in a speed run, a tempo run, and the long run every week. I could have ran today, but I started off this "quality over quantity" phase true; I rode my bike for an hour instead. The question of "How many miles do I need to run a week to get ready for the marathon?" is most appropriately answered with "As many as it takes." I could probably use another run every week, but I think this plan will surely get me to the starting line, and will hopefully have me healing up more as I get there.

I finished Harry Potter while on the plane to Vegas. Very good book; I think she ended it well. There were only a few times when I thought "Now that's mighty convenient" when some random thing would save some random person from a random curse or hex; I think she really did think things through and setup the final in a crisp way ... and in a way that will make people want to read the old books if they haven't! What will I ready now?!??