Over the course of my training I've noticed that often times when I'm done running my stomach will get very upset. The worst instance of this was on Sunday, but it happened yesterday also and I can think of several other times in the past few months as well. I spent some time thinking about it last night, and the only actual cause I could think of was drinking. I can't say about any other times, but Saturday night I went to the Pour House, had a few drinks, and got sick after my run on Sunday. I went out Tuesday night to a fancy dinner, had a few drinks, and got sick after my Wednesday run.

I can see why drinking could cause this, but I know I've drank heavily and run the next day with no problems (my birthday and Friday night come to mind immediately). At least until the marathon, I'm going to cut down on the drinking before runs and see if the stomach problems go away.

Yesterday's run was a really easy 8 miler that Lisa and I did in 1:06:55. I love the fact that 8 miles now constitute a casual run for me. The first long run of this training program was 8 miles, and I struggled through it in 1:28:06. I can now happily run that distance 22 minutes faster with no effort at all, and can blitz it 28 minutes faster and still feel stronger afterwards. I'm not sure that I've ever been in this kind of shape and I'm really curious to know what sort of mile and 5k times I could put out right now.

Total number of runs: 67
Total number of miles: 447.56
Total time: 62 hours, 00 minutes, 12 seconds

I'm nearing the end of the Glade Guard models. I finished the basic 8 of them last night, which leaves me with just two musicians and a Spellsinger left before I never have to paint these things again; I can't wait.

I added some red to the models to break up the boring greens and browns, and I think it helps make the models stand out. My highlighting, while not getting any more technical, is certainly getting faster. I'm glad I can paint to this level at a greater speed, because doing it as slowly as it was going was starting to be a drag.

Only three more to go!

Total number of runs: 66
Total number of miles: 439.56
Total time: 60 hours, 53 minutes, 17 seconds

Running in San Francisco felt like running in jello. The hills were ridiculous and I don't ever want to try it again. The situation wasn't helped by the fact that I had rolled my ankle climbing in Yosemite, so I only ran twice that week.

I arrived home on Saturday, and on Sunday Lisa and I crushed 20 miles; that did wonders for my confidence. Sadly, it did the opposite for my right hamstring. After toughing out Tuesday and Wednesday of this past week, I took Thursday off to rest and came back terrifyingly strong on Saturday (I blew through 8 miles at 7:30 pace) and solid on Sunday. There is some lingering pain and tightness, so I plan to take Tuesday off as well.

My vacation was a pretty good time. Laura and I spent our first night in California sleeping in a tent that we pitched in a parking lot because there was snow on the campground. In the morning we went climbing in Yosemite, where I didn't even top 30 feet before rolling my ankle and ending my outing.

After that adventure, we spend the rest of the week wandering the city. We took a tour of the Haight (a fun commercial district in the city), saw the aquarium and an Asian Art Museum, and spend a day in Stanford looking at the campus and Tim's lab. All and all it was very relaxing and warm, which was what I was looking for. Some photo excerpts can be found below, and more here.

Some trees near our campsite.

El Cap, about 3500 feet up.

Laura cruising through a crack.

Me enjoying the highest point in my Yosemite climbing experience.

Since coming home, I've tried to finish painting my Glade Guard, but the models are so boring and I'm just not interested in them. They're mostly done, but I'm not sure I'll be able to hit the 200 point mark for this month. The monotony of this has left me thinking about finishing the models I have bought (a unit of 7 Wardancers) and putting the rest of the army on hold to work on something else. This same feeling has led me to seriously think about downgrading the size of my Blood Raven army from 1500 to 1000 points. If I do that, I will only have 3 Marines, a Land Speeder, and Dreadnought left to paint. I'd also like to finish the Tau army I have (2 Crisis suits and 5 Firewarriors left).

After that, I'm not sure where I'd like to go with this hobby. Spoony, my primary (and only) opponent, is moving to California in September and once that happens, I won't have anyone to play with anymore. That being said, we don't play much to begin with, so mostly this hobby has been painting for me anyway. Who can say. I have been looking at a Death Guard army and a Blood Angels army recently, but I'd like to finish what I have now before starting anything new.

Laura and I are going on a date tonight to celebrate her getting an apartment and so I can thank her for taking care of me yesterday when my stomach revolted against my body.

I saw Dar this weekend and he asked me to be part of his wedding party. I was a bit surprised but honored. Now I just need to figure out what exactly that means. I sure do feel old.

Total number of runs: 57
Total number of miles: 358.05
Total time: 49 hours, 30 minutes, 15 seconds

I've now spent over 48 hours training for this marathon.

Apparently, 18 miles is a breeze. I ran without Lisa this past Sunday (due to an alcohol induced foot injury) and did really well. The first few miles took about 10 minutes per, but eventually I found a comfortable stride and ran strong through 12 miles. Here, I pulled my new ace: Gu Performance Gel. I took one of these at the 12 mile mark, and another one at 15 miles, and never looked back. There wasn't a surge of energy that I could detect, but despite my rather large pace increase, there wasn't any new fatigue either. These things essentially allowed me to go a lot faster with no consequences - awesome!

Kayleigh came to visit over the weekend and Laura and I entertained her while she was here. I was sad when she left in December so it was nice to have her come visit us. We all tentatively made plans to visit her in the Addirondaks this summer.

I had some very lofty plans to paint 8 Glade Guard before leaving for California on Saturday morning, but they've fallen pretty short. The idea was to paint one color a day (flesh, secondary green, primary green, and brown) over the course of four days, and have 90% of the models done when I left. The flesh and secondary green went on just fine, but Laura and I went climbing last night, and followed that up with some beer at the Behan, so last night was a wash. Tonight is movie night, which means that I won't be able to paint anything else before we leave. Oh well.

EMS had a very large pack on sale for $100, which I bought yesterday to use on this trip. I also bought a dozen carabiners to turn into draws. I'm getting more and more excited about this trip as it gets closer.

Joel is still rocking my socks off in chess (I'm currently 0 - 5, with a 6th loss coming right up). My book arrived in the mail, so some quality reading time on the plane should help my game a bit.