I'm getting nervous as Germany approaches, as I can't seem to shake my injuries, despite dosing up on Meloxicam and sticking Lidocaine patches on my aching body. I feel great from a cardio perspective, but beyond 8 or 9 miles the pain and tightness in my lower abs, right piriformis, hamstring and sciatic nerve start up, which turn the end of each of my twice-a-day workouts into a bit of a death march. I'm getting through 20+ miles a day relatively comfortably, but there's a big difference between 20 and the 45 miles I'll be averaging for 17 days in Germany.
I've been inspired by a couple of athlete friends lately. Steve Sisson was talking over dinner the other night about 100-mile races, and the need to go out and *suffer* in training. That's a good thought to keep in my mind, as I do just that through soreness and pain. I'm adding "suffer" to my usual running mantra of "relax and float".
And yesterday, as I was running to work, I saw my long-distance swimming friend David Blanke heading to a workout. We chatted briefly; seeing him again reminded me that, however hard ultra running may feel, it can't match the mental and physical effort required to ultra swim. Running for 9 hours, even in bad conditions, can't match to toughness required to swim across big expanses of sea.
These are good thoughts for me to carry across Germany.
