THE THRILL IS GONE

Or maybe it's just on vacation.

I think, after the Austin Marathon, I'll take a vacation from marathons. It's the training, the long runs. I just don't feel into it.

I needed 18 or 20 miles today, since I bailed on last week's attempt. Well, last week I made it 10 miles. Today, I made it for a half-marathon. My own, not a "real" one with other runners and a t-shirt. I set out planning 18 or 20 but got to a place where I knew if I hung a left I'd come out on our road and could just loop back home, so I did.

I think I planned a training season that was too long and peaked too early. Normally, I just increase my long run by 2 miles every 2 weeks up to one 20-miler 2 weeks before the race, and by race day I'm ready for the next step-up, and then it's over. This time, I've been following a 17-week plan that increases to 24 miles.

I ain't runnin' no 24 miles in training. At the start of the program, I thought I would, but I forgot how much I hate long training runs.

Anyway, after 13.1 miles, physically I could easily have kept on going. I could even have done the distance again, probably. Mentally I was dead.

Well, the marathon is 4 weeks away. If I do 16 miles next weekend and then taper, I'll finish the marathon, I'll give my borderline injuries a chance to subside, and I'll be off the hook.

My mother stayed 2 days/nights in the hospital, by the way, and is home doing her own nebulizer treatments 4 times a day, getting a few visits a week from a home-health nurse, and recovering slowly. Bronchitis/pneumonia take a lot out of anyone, especially someone who's a couple months shy of 87 years old.