Championship weekend begins - the affect on training

I have officially retired my Nike+ Vomero 3 running shoes and replaced them with a pair of Saucony Triumph 6 kicks. I also finally registered for the Maryland Double, which means that I am now committed to completing both the Frederick and Baltimore Marathons. Yay!

This week I put in my normal midweek trio of treadmill workouts. My mileage was 5-10-5 from Tuesday to Thursday and I was facing a 20-miler this weekend, but doubt/hope I can't do it. You see, my intramural basketball team is in the third round of the playoffs this weekend and our championship is Sunday at the Comcast Center at the University of Maryland.

Tonight we take on the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the Elite Eight for our hopeful berth to battle the winner of Virgina/NC State on Saturday in the Final Four. Last game I was player of the game for the first - without scoring a field goal! I had to play a 6'8" guy from Emory University that outweighed me by probably 100 lbs. I got fouled every time I held the ball down low and I wanted the ball. After going 5 of 6 from the foul line I got a generous goal tend from my large friend and finished the game with 7 points. Not the highest scorer, but the most tenacious effort. I've got to play like that tonight and all weekend for us to gain the championship.

Let's go Maryland!

Running to Hoegaarden

Probably the only time I voluntarily did 5 miles on the treadmill. I got home about 5 minutes into the first half of the UMD vs Cal game, changed clothes and jumped on the treadmill because I needed to get in my five miles. I also had just gotten some Hoegaarden, which is an awesome beer that I had first tasted on my recent trip to Australia, and I could wait to plop down on the couch a watch some of the second half with a frosty mug. I was supposed to do a fairly slow recovery run of about 9:00 min/miles, but I just couldn't bear running for 45 minutes and only catching a little of the second half in comfort. So, I stepped it up a little and ran at 7 mph (an 8:34 min/mi pace).

So the good news is that Maryland won and my beautiful wife was a TV star for 5 seconds today hanging out in the mid-point break with Whoopi Goldberg on the View. I also had my brew, which was not the same as the draft I had down under, but immensly better when you pour it out in a can and into a glass.