June 14, 2007

  • The Heart of God

    What do you think?  If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine [secure sheep] on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?  And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one [lost] sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off.  In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost. (Matthew 18:12-14)

    Well, I don't have much to say.  I ran a half marathon recently with a time of 01:54:35 which is a 08:44 minute per mile pace that I did.  Can I actually do a sub four hour full marathon?  I don't know about that.  I'm aiming for 04:30 but if I feel that I have extra in the tank by midway through, I'll pick up my pace.  I still have until October 7th to train.  This weekend will be a 15 miler.  Following weekend 17.   After that is the BIG 20!!  I'm a little nervous about that one.  I suppose I'll just have to climb that hill when it actually comes.  Right now, I'm feeling pretty good.  I do have this new foot ailment though called Morton's Neuroma which is the pits to run with.  My coach tells me to relace my shoes so that I purposely miss the top eyes so to create more room for feet to spread as they impact the ground.  In addition, I'm to stretch my calves more.  Well, so far, so good.  Less sharp pain on the road helps a lot.  This is partly why I'm a bit concerned about the 20 miler.  I'll be purchasing new shoes well in advance for that weekend so to break them in properly.  The lacing technique helps that's for certain. 

    Other significant items to note is my change in running technique/form.  I'm now running faster daily runs of 08:45 minute per mile pace instead of the usual nine minute.  No longer will I try and run with long strides.  Coach tells me that shorter strides and quicker turnover is more efficient for the body.  I'm finding that this is true.  I just have to get use to this..it's tiring on the body but I'm hanging in there..

    I've been listening to county music lately.  Some songs are pretty deep and some are pretty sad, and then there are some that does pick me up.  Slow and steady music...yes, I'm in this mood..