Official Chicago marathon training starts today!!!

Yeah! This morning marked the first "official" run of the Chicago training program. I started off with just a regular, easy three miler. Tomorrow I'll bump it up a little, including a 2.75 mile speed workout. I'm excited to get the summer/fall racing season underway.

I find its a lot easier to motivate myself to do my runs when I know that I really can't afford to miss even one. I feel like if I miss even a single run, I'll be dooming myself to failure at the actual race this fall. I also find it a lot easier to control my diet when I'm training. I've been trying to eliminate caffeine from my diet (isn't it ironic that caffeine and fiend sound a look so much alike?) and I don't drink much during training. I kind of like having an excuse not to drink..."None for me, I'm in training."

I've been reading (albeit very slowly) Performance Nutrition for Runners, it's very informative, although I have yet to employ any of the techniques recommended in the book. Bad runner.

On a different note, business is starting to pick up just a smidge. I actually have new patient evaluations on the books for this week. I think I've discovered the secret, if I actually plan to be out of the office, new patients will drop out of the sky. This morning I was in surgery with a local orthopod. I got to watch an ACL reconstruction with a hamstring graft and a inferior capsular shrinkage (shoulder scope). Way cool stuff. A most fun way to pass the work day.