Just Push

Sorry it’s been a little while…

Shortly after my last update, my toenail of my middle toe on my left foot did fall off. So I guess I have fully turned myself into a marathoner. It actually looks a whole lot less gross with it off then it did with a black dead toenail hanging on. However, now my ‘ring-finger toe’ toenail is now black and loose. So if it doesn’t come off before the marathon, it will definitely be off a few days after it.

Speaking of the marathon, it’s only three weeks away. That means after today’s 24 miler I’m officially in taper mode. As bad as it is to say, I’m glad too because I’m just ready for the marathon to be over. I’m just getting a little sick of only running. I went for a bike ride this past Tuesday (which I maybe shouldn’t have done) and it was great to do something different for once. If I had my bike this past summer, it would probably be a different story right now. My anticipation for next year’s cycling season is also getting to me, especially because of a lack of a racing season this past year. I’m looking forward to going to Colorado to do some riding during spring break and oddly enough I’m ready to get out the rollers to ride inside. I really just want to get back on my bike. I want to hit my training hard. I want to move from the back of the pack in Cat 4 and blow people up. I want to come out of nowhere.

Lots of ambition? Hell yeah. I’m also not gonna stop running (as much as it’s bothering my now). I’m already planning to do some duathlons next spring/summer and then I also of course plan on doing a marathon next fall as well. Like my cycling season, I want to train super hard for that marathon so I can get a qualifying time for Boston. Ambition? Drive? Insanity? I’ll take it all.

Speaking of insanity, my last two 20+ mile runs have been pretty interesting to say the least. I did a 20 miler on the 9-3 and a 23.5 miler on 9-10. For the 20 miler, I waited to go out because it was raining like all day, and I saw a break in the storm on the radar. Of course however, at about mile 3, I just got dumped on with rain, and then continued to get dumped on until I finished the 20 miles. For running in a downpour, I had a very good pace, 8:14. The following weekend for the 23.5 miler, I was sprinkling and cold, so I didn’t really want to go out, but after the previous weekend I pushed myself out the door. With running two 20+ weekends in a row and not really wanting to run in the first place, I had a much slower pace, 8:54. Today there are clear skies and it’s in the 60s, so today will be an awesome day for a marathon practice run.

There’s a little bit of me that is a little mixed up right now. All of the doping controversies in cycling have me kind of lost. It started with Tyler Hamilton, then it was ‘Operation Puerto’ with it taking Ullrich and Basso out of the Tour, now it’s the Landis case, and just a little more than a week ago Frankie Andreu admitted to doping when he was still racing. A part of me has that sinking feeling; that my favorite sport has been lying to me. But then there’s that other part of me that makes me realize that it’s not the pro riders that I love the most about the sport. It’s my bicycle, myself, and the joining of the two that keeps me going. Luckily that part of me that makes me realize this is the part that I listen to. It makes me not care what any other rider is doing or taking, it makes me care about me, only me. It’s the part of me that keeps me going, keeps me pushing, keeps me me. That part of me yells, and my body yells back.