Deep Thoughts

When you think that a good way to "kick start" your training is by doing the Quad Dipsea, you know that you have some serious, serious issues. Regardless of my mental state, the good news is that I have friends who have just as many issues as I do and sure enough, the weekend of the Quad Dipsea, Shibby and I lined up for 28.4 miles of what was certain to be a lot of pain.
The best thing about the Quad is when it is held. Every weekend, Thanksgiving weekend. I will never, head into the Quad hungry. Thanks to a seriously good meal provided by my new father in law, I was fat, but happy and ready to run.
The game plan this year was three pronged. 1. Don't get hurt. 2. Finish 3. Be able to move and hopefully continue the training by early next week. In the past the goal was 5:30, or if I was feeling really, really ambitious, 5:00 (which has never happened, but is still a goal).
So, there we were about to embark on my longest run since my failed 12 hour run around Chrissy Field (it lasted 3 hours and a whopping 17 miles before I ended up curled in bed w/ a fever and something resembling a mean flu). That run was in Oct. so if you take that out, my training for a 28.4 mile hilly run was a 1 hour run that I do around the Presidio, which I had done about 4 times in the past 4 months. Not good.
We started off and I'm not going to lie, it was fun. Knowing that I was in horrible shape, and knowing that Shibby was in horrible shape we went slowly, really, really slowly, but it was a ton of fun. I got to talk to people, watch my friends tear it up in the front (Taylor, Jon and Matt) and all in all, I enjoyed the first half. Then, well then a complete lack of training caught up to me and it was painful.
You can't fake 28.4 hilly miles, you just can't do it. Luckily I had my inov8 Roc-Lites on because my feet were the only part of me that was comfortable. Even if I had wanted to drop my buddy Shibby and sprint the last half, it just wasn't going to happen. I was amazed that you could move this slowly and still get cramp and have you legs hurt, but sure enough, I proved that you could.
Good news, I accomplished 2 out of my 3 goals. Bad news, I wasn't doing a lot of training after that. Ouch...