3/8 Through 3/14 The Twelve Week

Day 78 - Monday - Day off? I'm going to do a P90X workout. All upper body, no legs. Last week Elece looked at my toe and said, "I think you have an infected cuticle". I said but it's not sore on the cuticle, it's sore on the side of the toe by the knuckle. She said, ' I really think it is". So today Elece said call the advice nurse and see if they can help or maybe get you in earlier than this Friday. Sure enough they have an opening right at the time I was calling. So I go to the doctor and tell him about my toe and how there is not one particular event that leads me to why it is swollen. The Doctor looks at it and I said, "my girlfriend says it's an infected cuticle". The Doctor says, "your girlfriend's right". I said, "I'm not telling her". God just tell me to take a pill for a couple of days and everything will be fine. I'm not really a med guy. I don't even use Ibuprofen but right now I'll take a pill. So antibiotics here we come!

Day 79 - 5am - Track workout. Going to go slow! The antibiotics are already working. The swelling has gone down a little and my toe doesn't hurt as much. My knee feels alright and I keep a slow pace for the entire run. I run 11 miles. I'm happy that there wasn't anything that made me nervous or hurt. During the run Dennis and I start talking about "zen" and quantum physics. Actually Dennis does all the talking, I can't even spell quantum physics without using spell check let alone know what it means. There is something about these conversations that really get my mind off of running. My legs just seem to keep moving without any interference from my brain. It's when we are talking about quantum physics, zen and Buddhism that we really get out of our heads. Here is a sample, Buddha to a man, what are you looking for?" Man, "my keys", Buddha, "where did you lose them?" Man, "over there." Buddha, "then why are you looking here?" Man, "because there's more light." And the hits keep coming!

Day 80 - Wednesday - P90X workout. Actually an abbreviated version. Weights and machines.

Day 81- 5am - Track time! My knee feels good. I only run 5 miles on the track. I decide to run the other 6 in Sausalito. I can run from my office up to the Golden Gate Bridge and back. Not a bad place to run and there are hills both ways. It's actually a pretty steep hill going to the bridge. That should be a good test for my knee. If I feel any pain I'll stop and walk. The run goes great! No pain and I climbed the hill quite easily. No more pain in the toe. I'm feeling pretty good about my knee. 11.25 miles for the day, that's a good thing!

Day 82 -Friday - Physical today. We go over the blood work, EKG and the usual fun and games that take place during a physical. Everything is good. I have a 5 hour run scheduled for Saturday followed by a friends 50th surprise birthday party. Oh boy!

Day 83 -6am - Dennis and I take off for a 13 mile run. We are going to go up and over "cow hill". I'll run this twice if everything goes well which means I will run a bleepin marathon for a training run. Not sure how this will go but I feel better about my knee going into this run. The first 13 miles goes by pretty good. No problems with the cows. My knee felt fine for just about all of the run but at the end of the 13 it started to get goofy. I stopped at my house to get my fuel belt and meet up with Elece. She is going to ride her bike as I run. We run the route in reverse. I'm taking the second 13 miles slow. My knee doesn't feel bad and it really is just a long ass run. Once we get to the hills I have to walk some of the inclines and some of the declines. Elece is keeping the cows away from me. We get through the hills and it is literally downhill to my house. I'm tired, my legs don't hurt but I can feel the onset of cramps. 5 hours after starting I complete 25.5 miles. That's a long training run. Tomorrow I'm scheduled for a 4 hour run after I spend the evening in Sacramento celebrating my friends 50th birthday.

Day 84 - 7am - Sacramento! My daughter Amy, her mother and her friend Brianne are going to run a half marathon. I'm going to run for about an hour before the race begins and then jump in the race with them. I'm thinking they'll run somewhere between a 2:40 - 3:00 hour time. That will give me my 4 hours. There pace will be just what I'm looking for after the long run yesterday. I get to the race and meet up with them. I start to do my pre race run and I don't make it a half mile. My knee is having no part of this. I try to walk for awhile and then run really slow but my knee is not going to come out and play today. I end up not running at all and being a spectator/supporter for them. That was more fun than I thought it was going to be. I'd never done that before. Not really sure what to think about my knee. I'm happy I made the 5 hour run on Saturday and maybe if I take it slower for the rest of the training I can nurse the knee back by the time the 50 miler starts.

Week Twelve Totals - 47.75 miles! This is a far cry from the 70 I was hoping to get. Clearly I had unrealistic goals for the week with the toe and the knee not wanting to participate. I have one more week of heavy running and then two weeks to taper. This up coming week I'll take what I can get and go from there. The positive, I ran for 5 hours as a training run. I've never done that before. I still ran 47.75 miles for the week. That's not exactly a light week of running. So it's not all bad just not what I wanted. Week thirteen coming up!