Week 18 & 19 (2-15 May)

As far as running goes, the past two weeks have been fairly uneventful. The one exciting running event of Week 18 was Cinco De Mayo 5K that I ran in on base. It was free, and worked well with my PT schedule so I figured I would go ahead and do it. I decided that I should probably do more than just a 5K for PT though, so I ran about 3.5 miles before the race. My intention was not to win, I just figured it would be a good opportunity for PT. I also joked with the people setting up the race that because it is a Cinco De Mayo race, there should be Margaritas instead of Gatorade at the finish line, or maybe chips and salsa. In addition to there not being any of that, there also weren't a lot of people who showed up. As such my 20:41 time (far from a personal best) was good enough for first place and a little trophy. It's kind of silly, but kind of fun, and so I added it to my growing shelf of running metals and trophies.

My totals for Week 18 were:
Total Runs Logged: 5
Total Miles: 25
Total Time Spent Running: 3 hours, 8 minutes, 9 seconds
Average Pace: 7:32 (min/mile)

As for Week 19 it was not a great week for running, and it very well could have been. By Thursday, I had already passed 21 miles for the week, and just needed an easy 4 to make 25. It never happened, though. I had every intention of running on Friday, but that was before this little guy decided to make his home in my bedroom:This vermin kept me up most of Thursday night/Friday morning with both his elusiveness and incessant scratching at the door/chewing on the carpet. It took me about two hours Friday morning (after I gave up trying to sleep) to catch him, and "dispose" of him (relax, I released him outside, far from our house). For most of the story (my wife's version of it anyway) you can check out here. That being said, after that adventure, I was not in the running mood. As for the weekend, I managed to stay busy, and find things to do that didn't involve running.

My totals for Week 19 were:
Total Runs Logged: 4
Total Miles: 21.1
Total Time Spent Running: 2 hours, 40 minutes, 43 seconds
Average Pace: 7:37 (min/mile)

Despite the less than stellar week of running, I'm still doing good overall.
My new "as of" totals are:
Total Runs Logged: 101
Total Miles: 553.8
Total Time Spent Running: 71 hours, 34 minutes, 41 seconds
Average Pace: 7:45 (min/mile)

REFLECTION TIME: Two weeks of okay running, and very little excitement, makes it hard to stay motivated. What does motivate me is that I'm nearing my half way point, and it's still May. Also, I know that in running towards a distant goal, most weeks won't be that exciting. It comes down to putting your head down, focusing, and above all else, keep running. When the opportunities come to "spice things up", you take them, but on weeks when not much is happening, you just run. This Saturday my second MAN HIKE is planned. It should be a lot of fun, and I hopefully will have some great pictures to add to the blog. Get excited, I sure am!