100 Mile Month & Inspiration

First one ever, 101 miles with a few days to spare! That's with a low mileage vacation week thrown in the middle. I came close with a 92 mile month back in March. I remember when my friend Jen had a 100 mile month during the training for our spring half and thinking holy crap, that's insane and awesome for her. Occasionally I read an article in Runner's World that refers to people that run 50+ miles per week. How in the heck do they do that? I suppose they could run 6 minute miles and knock out the miles way faster than I, but still. Do they work full time? Do they have a kid or two? Or a really, really understanding spouse? Maybe they love the treadmill, have endless daylight or can operate on minimal sleep, who knows. Kudos to them because the last two weeks at 30 and 29 miles only occurred due to an understanding family (thanks C&M), flexible schedule and encouragement from my running friends. No more 15 mile Saturday runs on my schedule...I think I'll call that the start of my taper for FCM. Bring.It.On.

The inspiration I refer to above? Two things.
Yesterday's run was hard. After two breakthrough runs in one week, I'm not really surprised. The schedule called for 16, I did 15 and felt no shame for not doing the last loop around the park. I ran with a couple of the coaches and two other brave souls doing the long route. Jen decided it'd be a 12 or 13 mile day for her so she caught up with Amy, I was a little envious and impressed at the same time. Envious because I'd be chugging out the last few and she'd be done. Impressed that she knows her body enough to know when to say when. For me, the last 3 or 4 miles were a total gut check, thank goodness Jeff (one of the volunteer coaches and ToughMudder teammate) was along for the run. I wanted to take the back way into Plamann Park SO bad, but knew that would go over like a lead balloon. I felt like I could only talk in bursts so I reserved my energy to position skipping the last loop around the park and settle on 15. Solid and successful plan. Inspiration thing 1: Jeff is training for IRONMAN Madison taking place in three weeks. I am pumped to go cheer him on and think its pretty cool that I get to train along side him and pimp him for training advice. Quite certain Jeff's participation and the whole IRONMAN cheering/spectating experience will be a source of inspiration for some time to come.

Inspiration thing 2: my little brother. Just over a week ago he made a really tough decision. Huge props to him for having the courage and taking a risk. Sort of reminds me of The Game of Life. One thing The Game of Life leaves out though...a supportive family. My family? Uber supportive. Its pretty awesome and makes my world a better place.

pja