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second verse, same as the first
So far this week has been nearly identical to last. 3-miler on Tuesday, 5-miler on Wednesday, and I’ll be doing another 3-miler on Thursday. I’ve mentioned it briefly, but I haven’t really gone into my training program. I’m using Hal Higdon’s training schedule. So far I’ve kept to it on the nose, something that I failed to do the first time I was training for a marathon. When I was training for Cincinnati, I was skipping sessions right and left, basically setting myself up for failure. It was tough, trying to work in retail and train. It’s been so much easier so far. I’m only on campus a few hours a day and have my entire weekends free. Things might get a little crazier once August rolls around and classes start back up, but I’m hoping at that point getting up at 6 to run a bunch of miles will have become as routine as brushing my teeth.
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one week down, 17 to go
My first official week of marathon training is over, as is my first official long run. Although I’ve done plenty of Sunday long runs this spring leading up to this, this was my longest of 2007: 8 miles. I took a route that headed a good deal north of Moscow, through the beautiful rolling hills and wheatfields of the Palouse. For a while, the wind was pretty strong, and it was blowing the grain so that it looked liked waves on a green ocean. It was also my first run in my new high-tech sweat-wicking running shirt I bought yesterday. Overall, it was a great session. I felt strong all the way through, and even felt like I could’ve gone a few miles more. I don’t know about another 18.2, but I’ve got plenty of time to work up to that!
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baby needs a new pair of shoes
So I took a little day trip to Spokane today. The primary purpose was to replace my aging Nikes, and Runners Soul is the only running specialty store I’m aware of in the area. So I waltzed out of there with a shiny new pair of Brooks Adrenaline GTS 7’s. Rather than turning my tail and heading back to the Palouse, I decided to give running in Spokane a go, since that’s my ultimate goal and all. So I checked out the Spokane River Centennial Trail. After aimlessly running around about a million other bike trails in Spokane’s Riverfront Park for 15 min, I finally found the Centennial Trail and continued onward, for a total of a 50 min run. It took me through Gonzaga’s campus, and I got to see some great views of the river. Usually you think of rivers going through cities as being pretty calm, but Spokane River has rapids and waterfalls and whatnot. It’s pretty cool. No idea how far the run was, but I’d wager between 5 and 6 miles. The new shoes felt great.
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warshington
Today was another 3-miler. Same old Washington-and-back route on the Chipman trail. It was pretty windy and in the low 50s, so I was shivering while I was stretching and starting out. But on the return trip, the wind was at my back and it suddenly became crazy hot.
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up town
Today I went for a five-miler. Not having done specifically that quantity as a Moscow resident (I’ve done plenty of 4- and 6-milers, but never 5 for some reason), I had to figure out a new route. Granted, I could always just do an out-and-back on a 2.5 mile stretch of one of the bike paths, but I like to actually run on roads and see the town every once in a while. Not to mention that the bike paths are very flat, and I like to get a few hills in. The Spokane race is supposed to have a whole slew of them. A good source for routes is the Palouse Road Runners website. I chose the “Up Town” 4.7 mile route (connecting to it from my apartment brought it up to 5). It was a nice run, mostly through the residential parts of town. I messed up a little bit, cutting down to 1st street too early instead of staying on D, but mile-wise it was six of one, half-dozen of the other. I might’ve missed a good hill or something, shrug. My shoes are starting to bother me a bit. I’m planning on driving up to Spokane this weekend to gear up.
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and so it actually begins
Well, today was the first day of honest-to-goodness running in my training program. Tuesdays and Thursdays will be my easy days, so it was only 3 miles. It was pretty chilly this morning (40s), but it was very clear and the sun sure made it feel like summertime by the end of my run. As far as route, I did my ol’ standard 3-mile run. As luck would have it, I live exactly a mile and a half from the Washington state border, so it makes for a perfect “Washington and back” route on the Bill Chipman Trail. There’s a neat little sign at the border with “Vandals” (for UI) on one side and “Cougars” (for WSU) on the other. Also on Tuesdays, I do some strength training. Grad school must’ve atrophied my upper body muscles or something, because it takes all I’ve got to do a dozen pushups. I remember back in my marching band days, I’d crank them out like crazy. Oh well.
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and so it begins
Today marked the start of my 18-week marathon training program. It began, rather anticlimactically, without any running at all. Rather, Monday will be my cross-training days, and so I headed to the university aquatic center for some lap swimming. Besides my practice swim last Monday, I haven’t done any serious swimming since I was taking lessons over a decade ago. However, I felt pretty good. I did 20 laps total, 5 freestyle, 5 breaststroke, 5 backstroke, and 5 more freestyle. Let’s hope my arms don’t feel like jelly all this week like they did last…
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skin and bear it
Retro skins have been implemented. It won’t make the site exactly look how it did back in the day, but it’ll be pretty darn close. The 2006 skin probably looks the most different from its original - each entry was in its own little box, which isn’t possible with the way the current site is set up. However, you can still see it in its original glory here. The new skin is my favorite, though.
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behind the scenes stuff a go
I did a lot of behind the scenes stuff, letting me add, edit, and delete entries directly from the site rather than hacking my MySQL server. I suppose the next step will be adding old school skins.
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i would walk...er, run... 500 miles
My little mileage tracker is now in business off to the side. I won’t start recording them until next Monday. (Actually Tuesday, Monday is my cross-training day, but whatever.) That’s when my Hal Higdon 18-week training program begins.
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