It's better than pulling a Grete Weitz, but just barely.

While at first running appears to be a civilized sport after further examination it turns seemingly regular folks into savages. This past weekend I had the joy of banging out my last real long run, of 22.5 miles one(the fourth 20+ run). Most of the charity runners were shipped out to Hopkington to the starting line and then ran into town, stopping at BC. The nice part was they had some amenities which you usually only find on race days. Well I am not sure how nice it was but at least they had them. See the thing with runners is they make up for the fact that their sport is fairly civilized by pounding cups of coffee and Energy gels and then destroying Port O Johns before there run. I would take a Port O John in Somalia over one near a road race. And while I suppose this is better than the Weitz alternative, she was the German marathoner who was known to just let go of her bowels while racing. It would be one thing if a guy like me in the middle of the pack did it but she had cameras on her. Hell, Grete makes Matt Cooke of the Penguins look polished.

Anyway, back to the training. After battling a fever Thursday and into Friday night I was not sure if I was going to be able to do my long run with the team, I had to skip my run Friday because I felt so crappy. I felt ok at the start but at mile 17 I started to feel a bit achy(sick achy not running achy). It took a lot to keep going because my house is just past mile 17, but I sucked it up and finished off my goal which was 22.5. If you are one of the two people who read this blog you remember that two years ago my ankle blew at mile 22, well at least I know it will last a half mile longer. And even though I felt like junk for the last 5 miles and was not pushing too hard I still ended up running 8:33's which wasn't too bad considering. I was also happy that even with a fever, three Energy gels, one cliff bar and a bunch of Gatorade I still held it together better than Grete.

Something about the city of New Bedford makes me want to run for my life.

Ran the New Bedford Half Marathon today. There is something about that place that makes me want to run fast, maybe becuase I want to get the hell out of there as fast as possible. After a week in the Bahamas drinking Kalik Lights and sitting by the pool with Kate and the smalls I figured I had better make up fo the fact that I missed my long tempo run while I was down there. Felt great during the race, even after a week of the ankle acting up (apparently Kaliks don't heal bad ankle tendons).

One more bad week and then the taper begins, thank god. The world is running out of ice thanks to my bum ankle.

Michael Cooper was a genius

Growing up in the 80's as a Celtic fan I despised the Lakers. But thirty years later I have to admit that I am forever indebted to Michael Cooper. That guy was the forefather of the compression sock. I picked up my first pair of compression socks a couple of months ago and I am sold. My ankle feels better when I wear them and I even picked up a pair to wear after my runs to prevent swelling. The only downside of these things is that it costs 60 bucks to look like a dork, but man do they work. So while I can't forgive the Lakers from stealing a few titles from Bird and the guys, I will give credit where credit is due.

During my 20 mile run in LA I think I hit a runners high, or was that an actual high.

So I am back out in LA for a week and in the middle of the toughest training weeks. Today I headed out for an 18 miler but ended up doing another 20 miler. Even after having 6 beers last night, I felt really fresh and had no problem banging out the mileage. While running thru Venice I couldn't help but wonder if I was experiencing a runners high or an actual high, thanks to the permanent smell of pot all along the boardwalk. Either way I felt great and now that I have a couple of 20 milers under my belt I am starting to feel like I am getting ready for this thing. I just hope the ankle holds up.