It begins

Everything starts today.

With the close of the baseball season, Fall officially begins.

With the completion of my final bike ride of the season, marathon training begins.

Also, with the depletion of remaining sick time for my lovely wife, the young prince begins his day care.  He’s so damn cute.

 

Saturday’s ride:  45 miles, 16 mph(average), top speed of 22.5mph.  Still had plenty of juice in the tank at the end of the ride.

Not a bad ride for a guy who actually had to take his MS150 numbers off the bike in order to get it ready for the ride.

 

Today, the running begins.  The gear is in the car.  Shoes are in the bag, socks are with the shoes, shorts, shirt, hat, and towel are all tucked nicely in the bag with the shoes.  I’m ready.  Well, I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.

 

My first marathon training process began in October back in 2004.  That time I only finished 16 miles of the 26.2 mile run.  I didn’t take the thing seriously.  In 2005 I began training at the end of July and wound up finishing in just over 5:30.  This time I’m going to erase the debacle of the 2005 marathon and start training in October AND finish in less than 5 hours.  (Or I’ll just run the half marathon.)

The Israelites lived like I’m going to train… intents.  Yuk, yuk.

 

My benchmarks:  25k in December.  At least 13 miles in a single run in November.  10 miles by the end of October.  By the end of next week I’m looking to complete a 5k without walking.  As always, I’m planning on dropping some weight by the time race day comes along.  I’m looking to drop below 200lbs again.  Current tonnage is somewhere between 210 and 215, depending on what day of the week I bend the scale.

 

The start of training also means the beginning of such profound statements like:  the marathon is like life…  and I hate running, God this sucks… and Did I mention I hate running…  and there are many reasons to run, one of the is…  blah blah.

I get a little loopy sometimes when I run.

 

3 miles tonight.  I guarantee I won’t like it.