Continued Progress

I've gotten my long run up to just over 2 1/2 hours with absolutely no side effects and I plan to up that again tomorrow. I'm only running 3-4 days a week so far, and my weekly mileage is still ridiculously light (~30 miles) to allow my feet to break into not using orthotics, but I'm starting to pick it up (this week is likely to be around 40), not to mention that my weekly 2+ hour long run has been consistent for a few weeks now, so things are looking up. I still have to get down to competitive racing weight, but that ought to resolve itself naturally before I race anything serious. I'm planning for a 3:15-ish run tomorrow and the biggest climb of the day will start around 2:15 and last for 30-35 minutes, so it'll be a tough but fun day out on the trails. I'll make sure to start posting weekly summaries starting this weekend now that I'm actually doing something interesting at least once a week.

While my mileage isn't huge yet, the fact that I managed over 2:30 of running in one session last week without a bonk or any post-run problems leads me to believe that my health problems are finally behind me. I'm of course upping my mileage slowly to be sure of this, but I'm very optimistic right now.

One other note of interest is that I'm now registered for the St George Marathon this fall. I didn't get in via lottery the last 2 years (kind of fortunate last year as I wasn't running at all when the race happened), so I'm guaranteed entry this year. I doubt I'm going to be in my absolute best marathon shape by October 1st, so I'm planning to use it as an early tune-up in a serious fall training schedule for a more serious run at the marathon in Las Vegas in December. That being said, I'm planning to run no slower than 2:59, just so I can at least be able to sign up for Boston 2012 in the 2nd registration group and not risk being shut out from the race.

Like I said, I'll try to remember to start posting my training each week as I build back up to peak fitness.