Monday, February 7, 2011

Blessings in Disguise

The postponement of the 2011 Mid-Winter Classic was a moderate disappointment.  Though I missed the 2009 version, it became the staple of my Hyannis Marathon.  I enjoyed running this race even if the conditions were less than ideal.  To make things worse, the rescheduled date landed exactly on the day of Hyannis which makes a pretty obvious scheduling conflict.

What it did do, however, is inspire me to run a lot of miles over Saturday and Sunday, something I would not have done otherwise. This helped fix the dilemma of my mileage for the week and (at least with Sunday's run) helped to acclimate my legs for 2-hour-plus running.  In a time where my average weekly mileage since last October has slumped slightly below 40 miles, every run I can do will only help me get back to a more competitive situation.

Without my usual 10- and 20-mile races for February, my endurance tests pre-Hyannis will be lacking.  I'll have one race - Somesville 10-miler - to run, though only 7 days before the Marathon, making it effectively useless for conditioning at that stage.   The inconsistent weight and mileage could pose a small problem, at least on the surface.

Will it be a major issue, though?  I doubt it will to be honest.  I don't put a lot of stake into my finishing time for Hyannis.  The Cape Cod weather in February is far too unpredictable, as is my health (fever/flu at the 2010 edition).  Will I aim to to PR?  Without a doubt.  These times don't intimidate me too much:

2008 - 4:42:35
2009 - 3:32:03
2010 - 3:45:34

Who knows?  Maybe the incidents that caused these 'little problems' to show up will turn out in my favor.  We'll know in 20 days.