Long runs are long

I have in my schedule that every third week, the Sunday long run is a "fast finish" run. I had decided months ago that the best way to do this was on the treadmill. Fast forward to today, and I was on the books to do 17 miles, on the treadmill. Ugh.

It wouldn't be too bad if I could see the TV from my stationary position. But I can't. So I listened to about 8 or 9 episodes of Newsradio, and stared at my NHL figures, the slowly increasing numbers, and the new Cervelo. The worst part is the monotony. The pace doesn't change much over 2.5 hours. To get through, you end up doing all sorts of creative arithmetic gymnastics so that it seems like it's almost over. At one point, I had convinced myself that 5 miles was ALMOST halfway. Turns out, it's not.

But I survived. In three weeks, I have a twenty miler under these conditions (the day after moving ... joy), but that's the last truly long run that has to be done on the treadmill. After completing today, I'm not worried about any runs in the future. I can handle just about anything now.

Run: 6 miles @ 145 bpm, 6 miles @ 150 bpm, 5 miles @ 7.6 mph.

In some good news, today was the last run in the current shoes. (Good thing too since I raised a bit of a blister.) With ten weeks to go, I can pull out the new shoes and get enough miles in them to break 'em in, but not break 'em down. I know I keep talking about Christmas coming early, but these have been in my closet since July, waiting to be unleashed. If you see flames coming from the Downsview area on Tuesday, that will be me burning up the streets.

And in even further good news, I got an email from the head coach of the swim program. The excitement builds! One thing he did mention, was that some folks will skip the group swims until the new year, but since the first couple of months are dedicated to technique, if your stroke is an 'issue', you should make sure you turn up. I think we've established that my stroke is not just an 'issue', it's a bound volume of the last few year's issues, so I won't be missing any swims for a while.

Sometime this week, I'll be unveiling a tentative race schedule for next year. It's a cornucopia of endurance athletics. I guess that's what being a multisport athlete causes.