Ice Age is 4 weeks from today and I have not made it out to the course one time. Next week in the 35 mile training run which I will attempt with my friend Andy. Part of it is the drive down there and being busy with other things. But the big reason for not going there is the crap weather. I have commitments today, so I ran at 4:50am. Twenty-three mph winds, rain, and just at that 34 degree mark to complete the ambiance. In the day we went there months out from race day. There were always people you new there. Not so much now. I'm sure people still go out, but I don't really know many of them. I am also in that too slow to keep up with the main group and too fast to spend an extra hour or so getting a normal run for me in. In some ways it is fine. I spend more time running myself up here on the Northern Ice Age.
Running alone is getting more preferable because I run in my own groove. Feel good, feel slow, feel tired, feel caffeinated, feel good, feel fat and on and on. Now-a-days Ice Age is getting out there like one big training run, taking care of myself, and then looking for a hot spot to grab on to over the last 15-20 miles. Though in this day and age it is more the last 13 miles I look for it.
The good news is I am in decent shape. I've cobbled together a fair amount of 10-11 mile runs during the week instead of my old 6 a day during the week. Knowing I would not be able to go long Saturday (today), I decided to run 2 hours a day Thursday through Sunday. So far so good the past three days have been 2:12:11, 2:05:26, and 2:01:05. I'll get my 2 hours in tomorrow and if it goes well maybe close to 2:30. I've held together fairly well and the biggest thing is just forgetting about time.
I'm almost out the other end of the pipe. I'll run less miles during the week and get the big run in next Saturday. The following week I'll run a bit everyday and on that Saturday two weeks out I'll look to do a simulation run on close to 20 miles of the course. It is also a good time to make mental notes about the course. I'll time some of the harder sections and make an estimate what it will take to run time wise on them race day. Then when I'm suffering at the end, I just look at my watch and tell myself it should take 23 minutes (or whatever) to finish the challenging segment. This way I just shut everything off in my head and treat it like a 23 minute run. It I get there in 21 minutes I can then get a feel for how I am doing. If it is 26 minutes then I better reevaluate. Over the years I can get fairly close to my estimates. It just seems to make the run manageable.
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