We’re inside 3 weeks until the Vermont Marathon. To catch people up, I plan to qualify for the Boston Marathon by running sub-3:05 in Vermont. I thought it might be helpful to at least one person (everyone counts!) to compile all Vermont-related posts into one place. So here is a list of all of my Vermont coverage from the beginning.
My last long run is in the books. 17 miles (well, 16.3). 56 miles last week. Two weeks to go. Things are starting to get real. Friday and Saturday served up back-to-back hard runs and my body exceeded expectations. Friday I crushed a hard tempo workout. Saturday was all kinds of hills and speed. Both were fantastic. All in all, I’m feeling strong right now.
On the flip side, the weather forecast is playing some sick joke on me. When I first started tracking it on May 7th, everything looked amazing! Like, too good to be true. Well, I guess it was because a few days later, it skyrockeded 20 degrees to near-Austin temperatures. Like any good runner, I started moping. But! Yesterday things took a turn for the best! Inexplicably the race day high dropped 20 degrees again back down to darn-near perfect. Yay! Or so I thought. Today, whoever fudged the keyboard yesterday figured it out, and updated the race day weather back up to 83 degrees. Sigh.
No matter! My recent hard workouts were awesome and the weather here was the same as the current race predictions. I’m feeling good. There’s still a lot of time until race day, but I think we can do this!
The North Austin Trailer Yard (aka The NATY) is Austin’s newest food trailer park! Like most other food trailer lots, it’s home to a variety of specialty cuisines (yes, “hot dog” is a cuisine). Unlike all other trailer lots, this one is in North Austin! Not Downtown. Not South. Not East. North. And to officially kick things off, The NATY had a grand opening party on Saturday to get the word out about North Austin’s new trailer digs.
As any marathon runner can tell you, tapering (the last couple weeks of a training plan where mileage and intensity decrease), can make you a little stir crazy. For months and months any extra energy you might have gets immediately exhausted during the next training run. So when the running decreases, the excess time and energy increases, which can be a dangerous thing. You start to notice a little ache here or pain there that you’re pretty sure wasn’t there yesterday.
It’s no secret I’ve been working hard to prepare myself to qualify for the Boston Marathon by running under 3:05 at the Vermont Marathon. Part of my hard work has been to control as much as possible. One notoriously elusive variable has been the weather, which despite my best efforts, won’t do exactly what I want just because I say so. Thus, I’ve been doing the next best thing. Since the beginning of my taper three weeks before race day (May 7th), I’ve been checking the laughably long-term forecast for Burlington, Vermont each day. Here’s where things stand:
| Predicted Weather on May 27th as of: | Accuweather High / Low |
Weather.com High / Low |
Wunderground High / Low |
| May 7 | 65 / 46 | –* | –* |
| May 8 | 65 / 46 | – | – |
| May 9 | 65 / 44 | – | – |
| May 10 | 65 / 44 | – | – |
| May 11 | 82 / 59 | – | – |
| May 12 | 80 / 57 | – | – |
| May 13 | 61 / 59 | – | – |
| May 14 | 83 / 62 | – | – |
| May 15 | 62 / 47 | – | – |
| May 16 | 67 / 47 | – | – |
| May 17 | 71 / 60 | – | – |
| May 18 | 82 / 62 | 78 / 62 | 72 / 57 |
| May 19 | 82 / 59 | 76 / 63 | 70 / 54 |
| May 20 | |||
| May 21 | |||
| May 22 | |||
| May 23 | |||
| May 24 | |||
| May 25 | |||
| May 26 | |||
| May 27 |
So that’s what the temperature has been predicted to be on May 27th over the last 21 days… neurotic? yes no. I call it thorough. I’ll be updating this daily until race day.
*Weather.com and Wunderground are not so foolhardy as to try to predict the weather 3+ weeks out. I like Accuweather’s chutzpah.
Disclosure: The great people at Hill Country Pierogi put out a call to arms for Austin food bloggers to come to a private lunch to sample their goods. I answered that call and was treated to a complimentary lunch.
It’s no secret I’m a huge fan of Hill Country Pierogi. Great people plus delicious food is a tried and true recipe to get me to like you. So when HCP invited Austin food bloggers out to try a sampling of their menu, I jumped on it. Now, I think it’s a great idea to share your product, whatever it might be, and let others decide how to get the word out, if at all. Well I’m here to get the word out some more.
East Side King blew me away at The Grackle and since then I’ve been meaning to get back out east to try the other two locations (at Liberty Bar and Shangri La). As fate would have it, they were one of a very select few food trucks invited into the hallowed Austin FOOD & WINE Festival grounds. Their mobile truck, as colorfully graffitied as their stationary trailers, was cranking out menu items from their Liberty Bar location.
Today I was supposed to go for a hard workout at the track. Instead I slept in. My legs (and really my whole body) were just tired, and there was very little chance of actually getting out of bed when my alarm went off at 5:15am. Well I’m sitting here, anxious as all get out (that’s a saying, right?) about having skipped a run. I think a big part is because I haven’t missed a run yet, except for two days after the Texas Independence Relay to recover.
Normally I’d go at lunch or after work to make it up, but neither option works today. I realize it’s a tiny bit ridiculous, but I can’t quite shake it. All will be right in the world. I’ll just go for my run tomorrow. But it turns out skipping a run has made me into some kind of mental case. WTF running? What is this spell you have over me?
After a taxing Day 1 at the Austin FOOD & WINE Festival, Day 2 showed off a completely different experience. A new day also meant a new guest — my good friend Charlie joined me for more food and wine fun.
The Austin FOOD & WINE Festival took over Auditorium Shores for two days, showcasing all kinds of famous chefs and local vendors. Originally I wasn’t going to attend (due to seemingly exorbitant ticket prices), I was able to win some passes thanks to Twin Liquors! With two entries, but Evelyn out of town, I scrambled to find some friends who had no plans this weekend. Luckily two were free to divide and conquer. Onward to the festival!
