12 weeks to go

word on the street is that the 12 weeks before a marathon are when the real training happens. apparently, the hundreds of miles i've been running are called "pre-training."
now that we got the terminology straight, i put in 41 miles on asphalt during my last week of pre-training. granted, i did 18 of those yesterday, the week still contained solid runs outdoors.
i did the 18 by running lake merced 4 times. i was afraid it was going to get boring, and it did, but it was nice to run where i didnt have to worry about staying on the mapped route. also, the trail has mile-markers which makes timing and pacing easier.

details:
--the run took a few minutes over 4 hours.
--I ran out of things to think about after the first 2 hours. this meant that i analyzed the lyrics of songs like p-diddy's "i need a girl (part II)" and the theme song from Captain Planet.
-- miles 7-10 were miserable for no particular reason at all.
--at mile 17, i broke into a sprint after seeing 2 rats chase each other.

while stretching, i met a woman ultra-marathoner training for her first 50-mile race. she was in her 50s and i was definitely inspired by her endurance and dedication to training. she said she decided to run an Ultra because marathons were no longer a challenge... (WHAT?)... she is telling me this as im convinced i might need knee-replacement surgery after an 18-miler.

the important thing is that i finished without wishing for the MUNI to hit me and put me out of my misery... its about the small improvements. next week is TWENTY.