Busy Summer

I had hoped to be able to say it's finally stopped raining, but I can't.

Pretty much all of June and now, half-way through the third week of July, the weather has been wet. We never even planted our tomatoes and herbs this year. I hope the local farmers fared better and will have nice produce to offer at the farmers' markets...

Who am I kidding, though? I have no time to garden. I can't believe how busy this time of year is for me. And I know I'm not alone. People are on the move or they have friends and family on the move to come visit them. I think living in Vacationland makes us more prone to this "busy season" than if we lived in other places.

I see this with the Peak Performance Marathon and Half-Marathon training group. People have family commitments, vacation plans, visiting friends and relatives, weddings to attend, weddings to plan! It makes it a challenge to stick to a training schedule with all the extra activity, but as runners finish out their second month of base-building, it's important to keep the mileage up, and consistent.

Tomorrow the group will be out at Cape Elizabeth training on the roads there. Several runners will be running an awesome ten-mile loop. I love this loop for its scenery, rolling hills, and absence of significant vehicular traffic. The course is the Mid-Winter Classic road race, and I prefer to run it in reverse. (No, I'm not running backwards...I mean in the opposite direction of the race.) I find the clockwise direction provides a more gradual approach to the hills, that is after one is warmed up. Part of the course also covers the first mile of the Beach to Beacon 10K.

For most of the runners in the group, accomplishing a ten-mile run is a huge achievement and a 'first' for many. I love it when runners achieve a break-through in their training. It's a notch on the belt and something to be proud of, and certainly a gift to bear witness to it.

And the aspiration to run a first marathon or a half-marathon is awesome. It's rewarding to work with these first-timers as they head into the unknown. "Put your blinders on," I advise, because there are so many distractions to training, and such a great need to stay focused. We're nearing a half-way point in the training program, and the summer busyness is at full tilt. Focus, and keep your eye on the prize.