Mama Always Said.... Tip #236

Well,

I guess I will give you the tip first, and the story later. The tip that I have learned to remember is that no matter how good you might be in one of your disciplines, you must keep up with it, just as if it was your worst.

For those of you who keep up with major road races, or have heard of the more popular ones, then you have probably heard of the Peachtree Road Race, the world's largest 10K run. Held every year in Atlanta on the fourth of July, 55,000 runners head from Lenox Mall in Buckhead to Piedmont Park in Midtown Atlanta. The president of the Atlanta banks (for Regions Bank) had an extra race number that he was not using, and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time, and he was nice enough to give me his number. Yes, give, not sell! So I am getting the coveted Peachtree Road Race t-shirt for free (pending finishing the race)!

So how does this fit in to Triathlons you say? Well, I have been kind of slacking (kind of, you are a lazy ass!) in the running area for my training. I have never been good enough to win road races or anything, but I have been good enough to feel that I could focus on biking and swimming more than my original disclipine. Running was my original passion, I have been doing the Peachtree almost every year since 1994. This definately did not help in the Gulf Coast Triathlon, since I have not done too many bricks, as well as the total distance. I have not completed a half marathon in a very long time.

I went out on Thursday evening and ran about 6 miles, just short of a 10K, and completed it in about 51 minutes. Not bad, I have done better. But the problem was that when I finished it, my legs were killing me! It felt as if it was the first time I had run in my life. There are no serious hills or anything where I ran (although there were some elevation changes), but it still felt as if I was a newbie, trying to complete a marathon or something.

I know obviously how to fix the problem, I just need to do it, rather than talking about it. I will still run the Peachtree on Tuesday, and I hope to see some of you out there drinking while I am running by. I will also probably run a sub 50 minute 10K, but it might not be pretty. We shall see what happens. I just know that if I am going to win 1st place at the Peachtree City Triathlon in August, I need to pick it up on all three disciplines, not just biking or swimming.

Murtha...