i didn't run in madrid because it was hot and, well, there were better things to do than navigate the urban jungle in running shoes.

despite the time off while in madrid, i decided to pick up where i left off and attempted a full week of 4, 6, 4 and 12 miles. everything went fine until the 12 miler today. it's so, very, very easy to overestimate your conditioning. i haven't been eating so hot lately and i'm starting to pay the piper. today's diet consisted of rice krispies, a bit of popcorn and potato. if you're 110 pounds this might give you the proper fuel for running 12 miles, but i'm well over the 200 mark and i can burn that off in the first couple of miles. too make matters worse, it was hot and humid. i'm a sweathog and me and humidity don't get along so well. hi. ho.

i made it and i guess that's what counts, but it wasn't pretty. next week, i need to start getting my diet in order. i think i might try something like 5, 7, 5 and 12 miles, which seems appropriate given my current conditioning.

wow. where did the time go? for those of you who still bother to check around these parts - i did, indeed, finish the flying pig marathon. i don't know why i never bothered to update the site. i think i wanted to wait for photos to come back and 1 week turned into 2 which turned into a month. and then two months. these things happen.

so, i finished. and it was hard. who knew cincinnatti had so many hills. if you haven't been following along since the beginning, i injured myself training for the 2002 chicago marathon and the unjury was exacerbated by hills. it took a lot of mental energy to not succomb the dark side. i purposefully ran conservatively and finished in a little over 5 hours. i figured i'd rather finish slow than collapse in heap at mile 20.

of course, it didn't take long for kris and i to decide that we chicago marathon in october. so, after taking around 6 weeks off, i'm running regularly again. this week i ran 4, 6, 4 and 10 miles. it was my first 10 miler since the marathon and it was a little tough, but not too bad. i made the silly mistake of eating a largish meal consisting of refried beans and chicken in corn tortillas before running. apparently waiting an hour and half before running is not nearly long enough. it's never a good idea to force your blood to choose between going to your stomach to aid in digestion and going to your muscles to aid in running. somehow i didn't get cramps, but it sure felt like i was going to. anyway, it was nice to get out and put in a few miles. i feel like i'm finally getting my strength back.