Thunderupdate: 06 in '07*

[Spikeditors note: BT has foolishly vowed to complete 6 half marathons during 2007.]

At t-61 days until the my first half-marathon, I've started to pick up the pace with my running. And by "pick up the pace," I don't mean "pick up the pace of my runs." Rather, I mean "run more." Dreadfully early on Thanksgiving morn, Lil' Thunder and I rolled out to Ocean Beach for a turkey trot. I know I'm supposed to say it was a merry way to start the holiday. It wasn't. It sucked. First off, it was a six miler. I haven't run that far yet, and for good reason - I'm fat and out of shape. But the real killer was the fact that the first half was run on the beach. I'm sorry, but if you enjoy running on the beach, you must be some kind of masochist. It was f'ing torture. The three miles of running & walking on the beach must have taken me 45 minutes. Not to mention the homoerotic overtones when the heavyweight champ and I raced (see above video).** The only positive of the beach running was that once I got on solid ground, I felt like a Kenyan. I was flying (comparatively)!

The following sunday, Lil' Thunder and I rolled to Golden Gate Park for another organized run. This one just a 5-K. It may have been the 22 servings of pumpkin cheesecake that I had consumed over the previous 3 days, but the run was way more difficult than any 5-K should be. Part of the problem is that during these races, I try to keep up with the crowd. I need to just admit that I am really slow. But its just so depressing halfway through when 11 year old girls go bounding by me as if they were on pogo sticks (seriously, tons of middle-school aged kids beat me). Oh well, good to be out.

One major problem that I have to remedy soon is that I'm having trouble getting in regular runs during the week. My plan is to run 30-45 minutes twice during the work week (usually closer to the upper end of that range) with one long run every weekend. Unfortunately, work gets in the way (incidentally, in case I haven't mentioned it before, I'm a lawyer - an Ivy League educated lawyer at that). Last week I didn't run at all during the week. Which made my Sunday run more surprising. I went out and ran 5 miles - my longest training run to date - and felt great. I could have gone a mile or two more...

Training notes:

Longest run - 5-ish miles

Weight - still way up there (I think - I haven't weighed myself in ages). I need to start eating right soon.

Injuries - during sunday's run, I tweaked my right calf, though it seems to be fine now. Let's hope it doesn't linger.

Outlook - Sunny. In fine shape for now, though I need to get my routine down (and also to be sure to get my runs in over the holidays).







*The author sincerely hopes that the Spike's readership finds this post to to be sufficiently Giant Panda Vagina-free.

**I think it can be safely assumed that I will include the above video clip in every update post for the next year. Screw that - I might just include that clip in every post, period. Note how Apollo totally let's Rocky win. "I'm not gay ... but my sparring partner is..." Don't forget that Rocky Balboa comes out December 22.