This wasn't the best morning for a long run. The temps were near freezing and a light frost covered the ground when I left the house this morning at 7:00, with the sky still dark and nothing yet stirring except the neighbors' restless dogs, my wife (who had gone out ahead of me to do her 19) and me.

Perhaps a little background would be helpful: somehow, at sometime late last year, my wife managed to talk me into doing the Nashville Marathon this April 28, despite my aversion to out-of-town marathons and a busy schedule of local races this Spring. Perhaps it was the holiday stress that caused me to cave; but tracing the source is kind of useless at this point, as we are already registered and have hotel rooms booked near the finish line. I have not had time to train sufficiently to meet the goal I would most likely set for myself in a marathon at this point, which is breaking four hours. This is only the first of two that I will be running this year -- the other is on Kiawah Island in December -- so I have no problem just running this one to finish. I have had little time to train for a time goal due to the aforementioned race schedule, which has already been altered substantially (I had to miss a 5k that I usually run Sat. in order to get my 18 in this morning, and will have to drop down to the 8k that accompanies a half-marathon that I usually run on Earth Day), so the modest goal that I have set for myself is to finish between 4:10 and 4:15. If I feel good, I may try for a sub-four; but I feel no pressure to do it, other than the knowledge that my time will be published in my local paper for all the other local runners to take not of my sluggishness. But that is a minor aggravation, insufficient to motivate me to risk injury and exhaustion to log a PR in my first out-of-town marathon, on a course that I have already been warned is hilly as hell.

So that's where I am now as a runner: distracted during the Spring running season by a marathon I didn't really want to do, and making plans for a Summer of base training, weightlifting, reflection, and preparation to come back stronger in the Fall.

Back to that marathon, the one that I didn't want to do: I got 18 miles in this morning, which means that I have done what I consider to be the basic preparation for doing the full 26.2. So far this year I have done several runs of 13 and over -- including a tough half-marathon, a 16, and today's 18. Plus, I have done one set of Yassos in each of the past 3 months -- the last one this past Wednesday -- and may do one or two more. My point -- to myself more than to anyone else -- is that even if I don't do any more long runs, I am OK to finish. That takes a lot of pressure off of me in the next three weeks, and allows me to do some more creative training, such as shorter (13-15 mi.) marathon-pace runs, long tempos, hill work, and track work. I am going to keep my miles up these next three weeks, regardless of how I run them, and I may well do another long run or two; but now that I have an 18 in the bag, I have that kind of flexibility, and that is a great source of relief.