phew. what a week. after figuring out that all the intermediate training programs require a 5 days a week commitment i decided to start off with hal higdon's intermediate I program with an eye towards switching to the intermediate II program after i get a few weeks of conditioning under my belt.

i'll admit it. after taking 3 months off, the intermediate I program kicked my butt all over the place. some of it was physical as my muscles are obviously underconditioned, but mostly it was mental. 3 miles is doable, 5 miles is a stretch and 8 miles seems impossible. so each run starts out with bad mental mojo compounded by icy, slushy running surfaces which takes that much more energy out of you. making matters worse is the knowledge that i have to have to finish the week with a 5 miler followed by the already impossible 8 miler. if you're a "real" runner this probably all seems very amusing, but the fact is that even though i've been training for and running in marathons for the past two years, i still don't consider myself a real runner. rather, i'm a sedentary computer dork who is masquerading as a marathonist and i'll surely be outed sooner or later. so, that's the context for this week. endless ruminations while navigating icy terrain on how exactly i'm ever going to make through this week. i try to visualize ending the week successfully but in reality i'm pretty sure that i'll just "cheat" and maybe drop a run or two or reduce my mileage. who would really know?

but a funny thing happens and i actually complete every run even though i don't really want to. trust me, i'm as amazed as anyone and i become fascinated by the wierdness of the behavior. i'm doing something that's not really "fun" in an empirical sense and while the physical activity is a side benefit, i could probably just run a normal amount regularly and get the same physical benenfit without all the mental judo. and that's when it hits me.

it's all about the mental judo.

as quaint as it may sound, it's all about sleuthing out and squashing those little voices that say you can't. i guess maybe i knew this all along, since i did pick the wonderfully prescient frank zappa quote for the 'rhetoric', but i guess i learned it all over again.

so it was hard week, but i finished it. i ran all the miles and the 8 miler was the strongest run of them all.

although i haven't received official notice, it looks like grandma's marathon cashed my check, which means that i should probably start training. i've been meaning to get out and get a few miles under my belt before official training started, but i guess i've succesfully procrastinated for long enough, because the race is now a mere 18 weeks away.

i'm debating between hal higdon's Intermediate II program and dick beardsley's intermediate training program. it's hard to find the time to commit to beardsley's 5-day-a-week training. maybe i'll just jump back and forth between the two.

in any case, i went out for a quick 3 miler today. i can't believe that it's been 3 months since i ran last and 4 since the chicago marathon. taking 3 months off has a way of making 3 miles seem like a long distance and 26.2 miles virtually impossible.

even though we haven't officially heard whether or not we've made the 'registration cut' for grandma's marathon, we discovered today that nearly all the hotels are sold out within a 75 miles radius of the start of the race. calls to local hotels were regarding room availability were met with sarcastic laughs from the staff, leaving one to believe that minnesotans might be a little ruder than might initially expect. someone finally said that many people who ran the race last year simply reserved a room before they left town, effectively locking out any newcomers.

kris' sister finally found a place near the end of the race route that wanted all the money for the 5 day stay paid up front, with a $100 penalty for cancelling early. the race looks like it's a straight shot, so we'll have to drive 26.2 miles first thing in the morning. i guess that's a better option than the hotel that kris found 75 miles from duluth. all this and we won't know whether or not we're actually registered for the race for a couple of weeks.

it's been a little quiet around these parts lately. i haven't been running much since thanksgiving. i took all of december off because i was wearing glasses which is a requirement before you get lasik surgery and i found the glasses uncomfortable to run with. and now, somehow january is slipping by.

i am "in the registration process" for grandma's marathon in duluth, minnesota on june 19th. grandma is a small marathon - limited to 9,000 participants - but it's popular and they have a byzantine registration process. you have to send them a request for a registration form, then they "open" the registration process by sending eveyone a registration form at the same time, which you have to fill out, send back, and wait 4-6 weeks to see if your evelope made it before the the participant limit was reached. last year the registration closed after "12" days. so i got the form in the mail yesterday and the apparently opended registration on january 21st, so i'm going ot get mine back in the mail and play the waiting game.

in the meantime, i've got to get myself out in the cold and start running again.