I'm back...

Man, has it really been more than five months since my last post. I guess I've been a busy, busy bee. Actually, I got stung by a bee last week when I stepped on one trying to pick up Emma's outside toys, my foot swelled up and I had to go to the doctor. I'm all better now though. Hopefully.

As for my running, it's sad to say but I haven't run a race since the 50K in February. I've been training on and off since that time, but haven't felt fit enough to enter any races. My inconsistent training and zero racing during this span is due to some injuries, including a bulging disc about four months ago, lots of illnesses (not sure what that's all about?) and some other nagging problems that have cut into my schedule. After the bulging disc, I took three weeks off and started training again by running just 10 minutes — increasing each run by just one minute each day until I reached 30 minutes of total running. This strategy worked perfect as I was able to shack off my back problems (for the most part), and started feeling fine after the 20 days. Then, I started adding some faster runs but limited my weekly long runs to around 60 minutes. Starting with the running camp I put on at General Butler State Park (I camped out with some guys and ran on some wonderful training trails twice a day from July 30 until Aug. 2), I put together four solid weeks of training that included 50-60 miles. My long runs were 13, 16, 18 and 20 miles. But then I went on a trip to Gatlinburg Sept. 3 until Sept. 7 and got sick once again, so my training has been limited since. With the bee sting happening last Sunday, I ran just twice, totaling 12 miles, in around two weeks.

Currently, I just started back running again yesterday (Wednesday) and I'm thinking about racing the Louisville Doubler 30K (18.6 miles) this Sunday as a prep run for the Louisville Marathon in four weeks. If I do the 30K, I plan to start at 6:30 miles (goal marathon pace), then either continue with that pace or slow it down and just enjoy a longer run. After that, I will re-evaluate my training during the next four weeks and set my goals for the Louisville Marathon. My No. 1 objective is to PR (2:59:13).

For training yesterday, I ran 31 minutes at 6:30 a.m., 32 minutes at 12:30 p.m. (pushing the baby jogger with Emma), and another 30 minutes at 7:30 p.m. (running with my wife and pushing Emma again), which totals around 12 miles. This morning, I ran 40 minutes with 10 1-minute surges. I'll probably run easy tomorrow, take off Saturday and run the 30K Sunday. From there, who knows?