July Roll Call - Shane (the GEEK)

Greetings all ... I'm so bad at this blogging thing!! But, here goes my report for July. First, a weigh-in report for my Clydesdale brethren:

Wk 1 (7 July): 202 lbs
Wk 2 (14 July): 198 lbs
Wk 3 (21 July): 199 lbs (gotta love it when you gain weight!)

Clearly, I was hoping for a monotonically decreasing sequence on my weekly weigh-ins (I love it when I can use geeky math terms ... hey, I feel a great nickname coming on ... The GEEK), but just wasn't meant to be. I'm playing single parent for the month of July with my two sons, and so I'm constantly surrounded with tempting food choices like white bread and mac & cheese, for example. In fact, twice now I've made my boys baked salmon with a gourmet fresh personally made spinach salad and you would think I was forcing them to drink poison! But, I can't say I would have reacted any differently when I was 10. Anyway, the fight moves on.

Second, my training. I'm doing the plain vanilla Hal Higdon's novice I schedule, which means my first double digit run was week 5 (12 Jul). Honestly, it's this threshold that is very difficult for me mentally ... at 10 miles my body simply says ... STOP!! It's funny, because the week before when I did 9 miles, I was thinking, "this isn't bad ... I think I could run a 1/2 marathon today." But then, the next week during my 10 miler, I wanted to fly to Colorado and strangle Pat for talking me into doing something so insanely stupid. Of course, I can really relate to all of your comments about how the stress, rest, diet, and temperature factors all impact the feel of a run. For example, I know I'm now doing distance where I need to refuel a bit during the run. I've had some good success with the goo packs ... they taste terrible, but can definitely feel the second wind.

Okay, now the big news ... during the previously mentioned 10 miler my thoughts of strangling Pat were intermingled with short prayers that somehow a miracle would occur and I could somehow avoid the next couple of months of unceasing double digit runs. Well, I suppose this is a lesson in "be careful what you ask for," because last week I received a deployment order for a 120 day stint to the desert beginning in Sept. Needless to say, I won't be able to participate in Chicago in October. All kidding aside, I'm bummed that I'll miss this event ... I was looking forward to meeting all of you and having another great experience with the old Champaign, IL Road Warriors!

For now, I'm pressing forward with training and weigh-ins, since I'll still owe the winner their pre-meal dinner (of course, it could be me if I can get back to my monotonically decreasing sequence :-)).

Keep up the good fight and remember "be careful what you ask for."

Shane a.k.a the GEEK