I was in Southern California recently shooting some segments with famous celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck at Spago in Beverly Hills.
He is a terrific guy and we had a lot of fun buying organic produce and then cooking.
But I still need to get my marathon training in.
I had a great 15 mile run on the beach path in Santa Monica, through the Venice canals and boardwalk, down along the yachts in Marina Del Rey and back again. It was spectacular; just a perfect morning with lots to see along the way.
It’s amazing, when you run that far; you get a greater sense of the different neighborhoods that you run through and the unique characteristics and people that make up those eclectic communities.

I'm starting to get anxious!!! Are you? We are now just 2 months away from marathon day and I'm felling the excitement increase. I feel pretty good in general. But 26 miles is a long way to go... let a lone run.

I've been following the training schedule fairly closely. There have been some weekday runs that I missed because either I felt too sore or because of a busy schedule. But I've made sure to get in the Saturday runs. I was told those are essential. In fact, on a few occasions I even ran more miles than the schedule required because of the days I missed.

I've done several runs in the 13 to 15 mile range… and one in California that felt pretty good.

One strange thing I have noticed is that while some of the longer runs felt comfortable, some of the short runs, say 3 to 5 miles were difficult. I think it had something to do with how I was feeling that day, how fast I was running, the weather or the amount of hills on the route. I guess some days you feel like running and some days you don’t.

That was rough. I had run 15 miles on a few occasions before, but the scheduled 15miler yesterday (Saturday) was especially difficult. I wasn't into it from the beginning. But then again who looks forward to running 15 miles. OK I know some of you do.

I started at about 8:30am hoping to get an early jump on the 92 degree day that was forecast.
The first several miles were not particularly enjoyable, but by mile 5, I started getting in the grove. So I decided to run 8 miles up, turn around, and head back for a total of 16 miles. Not a good idea. By mile 12 I had drank all four bottles of Gatorade on my fuel belt, and downed two power bar gels. Let's just say with a few miles left, I was tired and THIRSTY!

My legs were burning, my running visor was dripping sweat from the brim, my mouth was dry and I was not a happy camper. I finished the 15 mile run, but then had to walk the last mile to the car since I had run 8 miles away from the car in the begining.

That last mile was brutal. I finally made it to the car about 3 hours later, downed an entire bottle of Gatorade, drove home and soaked my legs in an ice cold bath. Then I hobbled into bed and stayed there for most of the day. I was wiped out. How am I going to do 26 miles in less that two months? Ugh

It seems the more I run, the more difficult it is to run. There are days when I can run 15 miles and I feel fine. Other days I run 4 or 5 and I’m wiped out.
Today was one of them. I was scheduled to run 12 miles this weekend for my long slow run. But my legs were in pain from the beginning.

I ran 8 miles a few days ago and that felt fine. I’m wondering if my legs never recovered fully from that run and that’s why today was so uncomfortable. I ended up doing a slow 6, walking part of the time. Hopefully this will get better.