Week 11 - Royal Family Flu

Not much training to report this week. More active rest. Moved the Missus down to grad school to begin her spring semester over the weekend. I came down with a sore throat and stuffed up sinuses on Friday after some intense gym cardio. Felt like crud clear through most of Saturday as we made our way to Monterey. Thankfully I was able to shake the illness off quickly without real training setbacks. We even had a decent party that night to kick things off properly. My diet should soon improve with less chocolate and ice cream around. Some long runs by the bay sound pretty appealing compared to the scenic views of Marysville. I am contemplating joining the noon yoga class on Tues and Thurs to increase flexibility and hopefully reduce leg soreness after long runs.

Jose (see week 1 where he convinced me to register for the marathon) discovered my blog this week and got busy making his own. That bearded wonder is planning on putting in 500 miles over the next couple months. Guess I better step up my own mileage a bit. My intention is not to become a marathon runner, though. I just want to run one so that I can boast and shout... then go back to the more hospitable 10k races. People claim that addiction runs rampant through the marathon crowd. We'll see.

Sunday was a remarkable day along the central coast. Perfect weather. My wife and I drove the entire length of the BSIM course: making several stops to take photos along the way. The 2 mile run up to hurricane point is gonna be a doozie. What's worse is that you can see it coming, and the climb sits right in the middle of the race when morale is likely to be at the lowest. I'm looking forward to the challenge. Another point of interest is going to be the start. In shorter races I prefer to start towards the rear and pass people throughout the event. There's supposed to be 5000 registrants in the BSIM. My time will be plenty slow enough without added minutes spent weaving in and out of that many runners. I plan on starting nearer the front of the pack if possible and trying to hang with the 3:45 pacer up to hurricane point. From there on... we'll see.

{SIDE NOTE:I recently discovered (through Runner's World) another reason to detest England's royalty. Mind you, this is on top the endless movies, books, articles, and sappy nonsense about Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth that I must endure each year. The real marathon distance is actually somewhere around 25 miles. According to Greek legend, 25 miles is roughly the distance that Pheidippides ran between Marathon and Athens in 490 B.C. Why is the official distance now 26.2 miles? You can thank the royal family for this. King Edward, with the help of official governing bodies, decided that the 1908 Olympic marathon should start at Windsor Castle for their viewing convenience. Participants were also forced to run an additional lap around the stadium, so that nobility could enjoy an extended finish, before crossing the line directly in front of the royal box. Eventually this became today's standard and now I have to run another mile + thanks to a group of wealthy inbreds. At least it was an American who claimed the gold medal that day.}

-Jan 25: 12 minutes interval training on elliptical machine, rowed 3000 meters, biked 8 miles (20 min).

-Jan 26: Rowed 5000 meters, biked 8 miles (20 min). Pullups, lat pulls, crunches.

-Jan 27: Rested on the cardio for a day. Dumbell bench press and flies with high reps and low weight, crunches, leg lifts, and stair climbers.

-Jan 28: Rowed a fast 5000 meters (21:56), biked 8 miles (20 min).