Might as well hold myself accountable

So I registered yesterday for the Blue Ridge half marathon in 2 weeks.  I figure if I tell the world via internet, I'll be accountable  to actually run it.  Actually, it wouldn't be a big deal and I wouldn't be sweating it so much, if it weren't that my training hasn't been very adequate.  Oh, and there's also the small detail of elevation.  A total climb of 1359 feet, with total elevation change of 2713 feet.  For better or worse, though, I'm in.  I paid a whopping $90 for the race (why a half marathon is so expensive is beyond me - even if I did register late).  I have a lot of "Iwishes".  I wish I'd run more long runs.  I wish I'd run more medium runs.  I wish I'd run more hills.  I wish I weighed less.  I wish I'd visited the track at least once in the past 6 months.  But I'm doing what I can to maximize the last bit of training for the race.  So today I got out early for an eleven mile run.  I started with a mile warmup and then tackled the hills.  If you notice from the elevation profile, the hilly parts are within the first 5 miles.  So I did 5 long hill repeats.  Up half a mile, down half a mile.  Up half a mile, down half a mile.  And so on.  This effectively tired.me.out.  Just what I needed though.  It's opening day of turkey hunting season, and although I'm pretty sure I strongly resembled a big clumsy turkey doing these hill repeats, no one took a shot at me.  Then I finished the last 5 miles on mostly flat, with a few small rolling hills tossing in.  During the 9th mile my legs were so tired that I got attacked by a branch on the inside/back of my right knee.

I think this was probably a very good workout to do 2 weeks out from the race.  It definitely wore me out.  But I feel a lot more prepared than I did this time yesterday :-)  My muscles were crying for protein, so as soon as I walked in the door I whipped up my favorite shake (1 scoop chocolate whey protein powder, 6 ice cubes, 1/2 frozen banana, big spoonful of peanut butter, 1/2 cup milk).  Our blender stinks.  I would give my right pinky finger for a Vitamix, but I don't think pinkies are bringing several hundred bucks on the black market these days.

Reid confiscated his own beverage from big brother.

Busted.

I guess a little water won't hurt him.

My current running shoes have about 450 miles on them.

While I will run in them until they retire at 500, I don't want to go into such a rigorous half marathon with old shoes.  They are losing their cushion, and it would be asking for an injury.

So I picked these up yesterday.

Behold the beauty of a pair of new Asics Gel Nimbus:

Too bad you can't scratch n sniff.

Because new running shoes smell so good.

The smell of promise.

Of miles to come.