Take a Hall Pass From Running; and New L.A. Marathon Course Announcement!

First for my weekly mileage report.  I did a personal record for 2009, with 57 miles of running, including Friday's explosion of 24 miles in one day (5 miles in the a.m. and over 19 miles on Friday evening). 

I felt pretty good after those miles but still had to take the next day off from running due to sheer exhaustion.  One problem for me of running at night is that it makes it harder for me to fall asleep.  Must be that adrenaline rush.

But ever since that 2 hour, 15 minute minute run, I've been dragging, big time.  The clear answer for me is to get to bed earlier and perhaps sleep late a few days.  But sometimes even that isn't enough.

Perhaps the best thing to do when injured is to take an extended break, even in the middle of training for a marathon.  Remember that all those miles you put on your body are like miles "in the bank." Your body remembers those miles and you can take a hall pass if you need it.  No harm, no foul.  In fact, you'll come back stronger most of the time!

It also seems that my little knee problem has escalated over the past few days. Time to start popping the acetaminophen again and hanging icing the knee every night. 

My Hall Pass is next week while I back off on my mileage. While my 19.4 mile milestone built up my confidence, this down town will enable my body to recover a bit!

All of you deserve a Hall Pass at some point in your training! Don't guilt yourself out of it!

BREAKING NEWS! The Los Angeles City Council voted yesterday to change the date of the 2010 L.A. Marathon back to March from this year's Memorial Day date (which allegedly dropped participation by 5,000 runners!).  Next year's Silver Anniversary 25th Year L.A. Marathon will take place on Sunday, March 21st.  March 21, 2010 by the way marks the 30th anniversary of the day Jimmy Carter announced a U.S. boycott of the Summer Olympics in Moscow due to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. 

And, once again the race course will be changed! Next year's course will be a "Stadium to the Sea" route that starts at Dodger Stadium and ends at the Pacific Ocean. I've run the L.A. course half a dozen times and have lost track of how many courses there have been. No specifics yet on this latest route.  Hmm, I wonder if the fact that Dodgers owner Frank McCourt also owns the rights to the L.A. Marathon has anything to do with this.  More info at www.lamarathon.com.