Home from the Beach and it's T -22 Days and Counting

Deb and I got home on Monday of this week from 2+ weeks in Bethany Beach DE.  Since this is a blog about running, I won't bore you with vacation details (here is a picture of Deb feeding the seagulls...).  Running at the beach, however, was fantastic.  Every day was cool, with all but my first long run (20 miles) beginning under 60 degrees.  There was some wind but nothing that was bothersome.  Best of all, it was FLAT.  I generally ran along the coastal highway (the main road that connects Rehoboth, Dewey, Bethany, Fenwick Island and Ocean City, MD) and I generally ran fairly early in the morning - before 7:30.  the best part was the smell.  Nothing but salt air and a sense of freshness.

I did two long(er) runs while there, one 20 miler and a 14 the following week.  Interestingly, everything was faster.  My long runs were faster and my short runs were REALLY faster.  I am going to attribute this to 1) no heat, 2) no hills, 3) no humidity compared to KC and 4) the many Longboard Lagers I put away every afternoon.  If you haven't tried Longboard, you should.  We discovered it in Hawaii and have been searching for it ever since.  Lower Delaware is the only place I have found it.

I can't say that my diet was great.  Basically, I ate everything in sight, with a particular concentration on bacon, pork roll, caramel corn (with nuts, of course), beer, hoagies, cheesesteaks and fudge.  The Diet of Champions.

The clock says 22+ days until the Waddell and Reed Kansas City Marathon, the culmination of my immediate training regime and the inspiration for this blog.  I have one more long run left, a 22 miler this weekend, and then will start the taper process to make sure that my legs are as fresh as possible while not losing any fitness.  That is likely a harder thing than I imagine, since I feel like missing a single day of training will put me behind.  Trusting those who know better, however, I will stick with the plan.

I have said that I want to make it to the starting line healthy.  I have also said that if I can make it to the line healthy, I will finish the race. I won't make any predictions with 22 days left but I will say that my training is going as planned, I feel pretty good about my health and have been taking the requisite days off for recovery.  Now that I've said that, I'll probably step in a hole and...