Blah Blah Blah

Hey!  Have I mentioned I'm training for a marathon?  


I know, I know... I've only mentioned it about 1001 times.  If it makes you feel any better, I'm as sick of me talking about it as you are.


AAAAAAAnyhoo.... Still training, still on the high mileage plan.  Last week I set a personal record for mileage at a whopping 57.  It was supposed to be 58, but I had yet another tempo run "incident." Last Saturday I ran what will be my longest single training run of the plan... 18.  I've been very disciplined about putting the 'S' in my LSD.  That's Long Slow Distance for you folks that don't obsess over this silly game like I do.  I ran the 18 miler at 10:03 pace, which was cool, because I felt like I could have gone on and on and on and on and on, even at the end.  It was a new and different long run experience for me.  


Other than psyche crushing tempo runs, my training has gone pretty much swimmingly.  There is one other issue, however.  My long time running partner in crime (who I also happen to be married to) has a labral tear and is scheduled for surgery on July 10th.  I was supposed to be logging a whole lot of these miles with him, and now I can't.  Which sucks.  I miss my running buddy, he misses running (though has probably, if truth be told, enjoyed the break from having to run with his gritchy wife), and training just isn't quite as fun as it used to be.  


So... there's the training update.  Grandma's marathon is 21 days away.  I'm interested/excited/scared to see how it goes after this completely different method of training.


In other (not) running news...
I'm still mentoring.  It's been about six months now.  Boy howdy, do 13 year old girls change in that amount of time!  She's gone from sweet kid to completely schizophrenic teenage girl.  Not like mentally ill schizophrenic, but just normal teenage girl schizo.  We got together last night and she spent the bulk of the time texting her frenemy (I can think of no better word), about their scheduled fight.  It was originally scheduled to go down after school was over for summer, but apparently panties were in such a wad that it was going to need to happen sooner.  


This all causes me to sigh deeply.  I grew up in the sticks, was non-confrontational to a fault, and was very, very white (the only part of that equation that has changed, really, is where I live).  My mentee is African-American and lives a very urban, somewhat rough area of north Minneapolis.  At this age and stage of my life, I'd have a hard time wrapping my mind around the mystery that is ANY American teenage girl.  Throw in the other factors and it's darn near impossible.  Her attitude isn't bad, but I see it declining.  I'm not judging, because, despite my mostly non-confrontational manner,  you could search the whole world over and not find a kid with an attitude any crappier than mine was at age 13.  As far as I can tell, she's completely and totally developmentally appropriate.


My struggle, though, is that even though she's behaving normally, the implications are far more serious for her.  In some ways, I don't feel she has the luxury of being normal, which seems completely unfair.  She needs to keep her head screwed on straight.  She needs to be rational.  She needs to do well in school.  All things that can be really, really tough for a kiddo that's 13 years of age.  


At any rate, we will keep on keepin' on.  All I can do is be there and listen, and try to occasionally dole out some advice without sounding like a geeky, annoying adult.  It's amazing how invested I feel in her success after such a short time.