"It's Like a Sauna In Here"

That has to be one of my favorite Kramer lines from Seinfeld. If you don't know the scene, it's where Kramer is sitting in the sauna at the health club and he's looking for an opener to begin a conversation with the man next to him, who he thinks is Salman Rushdie... classic!

Well that's what it felt like the past two mornings outside in St. Louis - Friday probably being worse than Thursday.

Thursday morning I had 3 miles to "run". I thought about doing it outside, but I opted for the gym. I did have one of my tougher times getting out of bed, and actually slept in a bit, thereby thwarting any plans to maybe add in a strength workout after the run.

I got to the gym and "ran" 3 miles at a decent pace. Finished in 26:12, which is an 8:44 pace - much faster than what I have been running lately. And the good thing was that I didn't really feel I was pushing it. Afterwards, I did a good cooldown stretch and then worked my core for 15 minutes. I needed that.

Thursday night, I was gearing up for my long run on Friday. I had a lot to do at home and I was also trying to upgrade my iTunes to version 8.2 and my iPhone to the new Operating System (3.0 - woohoo, copy and paste). The process took me three hours on my sluggish computer (sigh). Before I knew it, it was past midnight. And I was planning on getting up at 4:45 to hit the trail for 9 miles in the sauna outside.

I hit up my buddies to see if they were brave (or dumb) enough to join me, and Chris and Mike made it out to the lake. We had to start in a different spot because setup had already began for the annoying boat races scheduled for the weekend. People who run at Creve Coeur Lake are probably all too familiar with this phenomenon. This is a personal opinion, but the boat races really bother me. They end up blocking off part of the trail system causing confusion and eliminating a couple well-traveled loops. Plus the boats disturb the hell out of the natural lake, which ends up leaving a myriad of dead fish on the beach afterwards to stink up the place for a good week. This happens a few times each summer and is just a big hassle. Something that I'd rather be selfish about not not have to deal with.

For the run Friday morning, it was hot as Hades, and really humid - "like a sauna" as Kramer would say. But somehow we pushed through about 9 miles. Our calculations were a little off as we had to take a detour where part of the trail was flooded. We ran the first 6.5 miles together. Then I faded into the heat as my legs got sluggish and my body told me why I need to get more sleep than 4.5 to 5 hours a night. I told the two of them to go on ahead. They finished a couple minutes ahead of me. Still I managed a time where my pace was about 9:15 - much faster than I'm used to for longer runs. But I guess that's the result of running with a couple guys that just have more horsepower than I do. They push me to be better, and I will be because of it.

It's funny. We talked a bit about this after the run, while throwing back some warm G2. In school I was always that kid that didn't have to work hard and still got A's. And it was easy for me. I remember so many classmates that worked their tail off to be a B or even C student, and occasionally maybe they would bring home a very proud A. Throughout my life I've been that kind of kid when it came to athletics. I'm a B athlete, who can occasionally pull out an A, but only with a bit of luck and a helluva lot of hard work. It can be frustrating, but I've come to accept it. We all have different talents, different strengths, different things we're good at. The guys said I was being a bit too hard on myself, but I really wasn't getting down. I think a big part of training and preparing for a race like this is knowing your body's limitations and setting realistic "stretch" goals. For me, to complete the Chicago Marathon in 4 hours is a good stretch goal. It'll be tough as hell, but I can probably do it should all things go right. For me to qualify for Boston, well, there's no way in hell that's ever going to happen. And I understand that.

When I got to the gym to shower up, I weighed in... 169.4 - that's a full 2.0 pounds lighter than what I was 24 hours prior. Gotta push the fluids and rehydrate, I guess. And so I did all day long. I managed to get through the Friday workday without falling asleep in my cubicle, which is no small feat.

So here I am, ready for the weekend, some vacation time, a little R-n-R, and I've already got my long run in.