*UPDATE* FROM LITTLE STEPS - TO GIANT LEAPS!!

Greetings everyone! WEEK#6 COMPLETED.

Well, I am sitting here with a huge smile on my face knowing that I just completed the best week of training I have ever had, and as an added bonus - I am receiving my "official" menu from the nutritionist tomorrow morning and having a little pow-wow with my running doctor to go over my ortho inserts/shoes/knee strength probably one last time. For the record, I have completed 21 weeks of the 32 week training course. This last week my plan was for ONE of my runs to be a hill run (probably Monday thus giving me the rest of the week to recover before my Saturday long run). Well, not only did I run a hill on Monday...but I ran one on Wednesday and Saturday as well. Thursday was the only day that I simply ran a little 3 mile flat stretch. Now - on to Saturday's run.

I was feeling really, REALLY good as I left the house and I had scheduled myself to run a flat 11 miles at one of the Lakes. The main problem that running at the Lakes poses is that while it helps with overall running, it does not prepare you adequately for the uphill and downhill slopes that are always encountered during a marathon/half marathon. I have known since my half marathon in January that my training would eventually take me away from the flatlands of the Lakes and I would have to run hills. As I left the house this morning I made a mental decision "today is the day I ditch the baby bottle and pacifier - I am sick of surviving runs. Time to start destroying some runs."

This is always a bit dicey....because if you aren't careful it is very easy to get hurt with this mentality. But my thinking was "Bill - you have all the knowledge and equipment you are going to have for the ACTUAL marathon. The only thing you are missing is some nutritional content, which is coming soon. It's time to put up or shut up." So with that being said, I took off at the Lake, then left Lake Murray and went north up Lake Murray Blvd. to Navajo Rd. I turned east and ran in front of the Vons shopping center, then turned southwest down Fletcher Parkwy and continued to Costco in La Mesa. I turned north on Baltimore Dr. and then made a left back on Lake Murray Blvd. again and returned to the lake, and then ran 4 additional miles at the lake. Total distance traveled was 11 miles in a time of 2:21:15 (12:50/mi). Definately off of my targeted pace of 12:00/mi...but if you had seen me after the run, you would have been SOOOO impressed. I was standing there talking to my running buddy Cordell(who happened to be there doing his run) and I told him where I ran to. He stared at me and was like "uuuuh - and how do you feel?" I said, "AWESOME!!" And the rest is history.

So now here I come - charging down week#7 with a new found confidence. This week I am going to run a 3 mile hill Monday, then 4 mile flat surface Wednesay and 3 mile flat surface Thursday. On Saturday I am going to do the same run again, but add 1 mile to it for a 12 miler. Total miles for week #7 will be 22 (now we are gettin' up there).

Looking GOOD!!

Bill

Mile Marker Dedication for this week: On marathon day, mile #9 will be dedicated to Doc Vic (mile 9 is an uphill climb to the top of the 163 - without him I couldn't be doing this). Mile #11 will be dedicated to my nephew Jake who is running from 11 to 12 with me.