I consider that I had a decent week of training, logging up 58.5 miles (up 3 miles from last week). I kind of feel the transformation happening slowly with my running in that its becoming subconscious again .. what I mean is that I’m starting to run without actually thinking about it, and just letting my body do the work and adjust accordingly. I’ve found in previous training cycles that this is what helps me through the first 12 or so miles of a marathon, that its just subconscious, don’t have to think. Its after the body starts to resist the distance, thats where the training has to come in .. I believe I wrote somewhere my theory of how a marathon gets broken down:

• First 10 miles is done with your head (subconscious like I spoke about above)
• Second 10 miles is done with your heart (this is where the endurance and training comes in)
• Last 6.2 miles is done with your guts (just suck it up, concentrate and do it)

Its always when that balance gets broken that problems occur for me. In the best marathons I’ve run, I’ve tended to make it to mile 20 or 22 before I start to break down, which is where my training has taken me .. this is why I ramp the miles the way I do so that I can casually run 10 or 12 miles without even thinking… i’m almost there!

I caught word the other day that the woman I wrote about a few weeks back doing her first marathon managed to schedule her second marathon already without completing the first yet. My opinion for what its worth is that its a mistake to go that route.. For those who have done marathons, your first one is the deciding factor .. you either love it (and want to do more), or you didn’t like it (and won’t do it again). Making a second marathon commitment without actually seeing what the training and the experience is all about is a recipe for disappointment.. plus the fact that its the Disney marathon in January .. its tough training in our area after mid-November with the weather and all (and marathon training on a treadmill is trouble).. Well, maybe i’m getting to concerned about something I shouldn’t. Maybe I should just mind my own business, but I hate see someone set themselves up for trouble … guess i’ll let it go.

So as I finished up my 10 miler today at 8:30 this morning, I am slowly finding out that either its really, really hot that early in the morning or I have a sweating problem. I mean I was soaked with sweat, totally. I see other people out running who look nothing like I do, so its one of two things, i’m running more miles than them .. or I have a sweating problem. I’ve always sweated more than the average person, but this is out of control, sometimes its even embarrassing .. however it won’t stop me from running, not something that silly.

One other observation I made today was that a girl on a street bike passed me about 7:15am this morning going north on Route 100 .. didn’t think anything of it until I was out washing my car around noon today and saw the same girl, riding back down Route 100 almost 5 hours later … WOW … could it be that she was riding for that long? I’m not a biker, but I can’t imagine how many miles someone can cover in 5 hours. She didn’t even look like she was tired (but then again, what do I know). I was impressed, maybe she’s a professional .. (or I don’t know anything about bike riding, it might be that!)

So I’m hoping the positive training experience continues this week .. the weather is supposed to be warm, so we’ll see how it goes..