Half Marathon on the Horizon

The Surf City USA Half Marathon is on Sunday. We go to do packet pickup in a couple of hours.

Basta is really ready for this. He can run 13 miles easily. He can push this and run 13 miles faster than he's ever done before. He's healthy. His swimmer's shoulder still lingers but his legs are fine. His nutrition is good. He went into pre-race nutrition mode yesterday, which means more complex carbs, less saturated fats, and nothing to drink but water and coffee.

He knows what he wants to wear and is unconcerned about the forecasted rain. This run is going to be cold (for us. 45⁰ at the start. I guess that's more like chilly), but he's been running in the wind and chilliness for a few weeks now. He doesn't like it -- no one does -- but he does it.

He has his pre-race nutrition lined up: The same protein shake that he has every morning. No solid foods. A Clif Shot pocketed for before the start and another one for halfway through. The course is supposed to have Clif Blocks at various aid stations, and hooray for them for choosing Clif, but it's better if you have them on your person, available exactly when you want them.

Today he's going for a short 30 minute run and an easy "Seniors Spin" class at the gym. Tomorrow he'll ride the bike for a quick 30 minutes to keep his leg muscles fired up.

Then it's Showtime. B-race Showtime, anyway. It would be nice if it doesn't rain.

He really likes the new training program. He also seems to be just plugging away at the training, too. It's not the sole focus of his life any more. Far from it. Yet he's working on doing each training day as prescribed, and he's doing pretty well at that. On hills days he rides hills, even if they are on the Computrainer. He runs intervals, tempo runs, and sprints. So far he refuses to do another run test (blame the rain and wind) and long slow distance, but we can do fine without those. This is where I wanted him to be, and where he wanted to be, too.

Now if I could just get myself there. I may have to start another blog on that little topic.