It seems that it's harder to face the end of a long weekend than a normal weekend. But it was a good one. I had originally planned to go down to Cincy for the weekend and help a friend move, but he ended up moving early. Probably for the best since I would have broke the bank buying gas for the trip (though the Vibe managed to get 35 mpg on it's last tank which was mixed city/highway). Gas is currently at $2.99 in the area, after peaking at $3.09 mid-week. Looks like it is headed downwards, though I imagine that in the not-too-distant future we will see $3 for good. Part of me is kind of glad to see the price soar because it has really brought into focus fuel economy and dependence on fossil fuels. Everyone knew this day was coming, yet chose to ignore it until it finally got here. But finally the auto industry is rushing to improve gas mileage and everyone is talking about alternative energy again.

I moved forward with the marathon training on Sunday, cracking the 18 mile mark for the first time. It was not easy, especially the last few miles, but I managed to run the whole thing. Never thought I would run for 3 straight hours. At this point, it's way more of a mental struggle than a physical struggle. My body isn't exactly thrilled with the crazy distances, but it's getting myself to not give up which is the hardest part. I couldn't tell you how many times I ask myself when running "why am I doing this?". Unfortunately, I don't really have a good answer to that, but I manage to keep going most of the time. I have just one more long run, another 18 miler, on the schedule before I start cutting back for the marathon (part of which will be running a half-marathon in 13 days).

This evening I enjoyed the nice weather by going on a bike ride with Kristy out in the Metroparks in the Strongsville/Berea area, for about 15 miles. There were a lot of people out and it made me realize what a great commodity Northeast Ohio has with all of the great parks and outdoor trails. I can't think of any other cities that have such a great system of parks. I think people usually spend too much time on the negatives when talking about the area and forget about the things that we've grown to take for granted. If it wasn't for the Metroparks, I'm sure I would have never made it this far in my marathon training because running around the neighborhood or the city would have gotten old in less than a week. And the same thing goes for the bike.

This entry was posted by Brad, on Monday, September 05, 2005. You can leave your response.