With the race four weeks from last Sunday, it seems wrong to take a long weekend off but I did. Mid-August is our annual trip the Upper Peninsula to see friends. The trip becomes a gambling (8 casino stops and I don’t gamble) and golf adventure(Friday, Saturday and Sunday at three different courses and I played my last golf on last year’s trip) followed by too much eating (that part I did).

I don’t have anything against gambling for those who enjoy it, but I don’t have fun doing it. I guess it’s the “thrifty” part of me that knows how hard I worked to make it in the first place that I don’t enjoy losing it. But each year I buy KENO tickets. Most years it is $10 worth; this year it was $20. I won $4 so I lost $16 and that’s enough for me. Two or three years ago I won $1,500 on a $2 KENO ticket so I figure I’m still playing on their money for 147 more years.

This year, when we played golf at the Casino at Watersmeet (home of the Nimrods-anyone see the nationwide TV commercial?), we got $3 off the Friday night buffet which we were going to eat anyway, and a $5 match coupon. With the match coupon you give them $5 and they give you a $10 roll of quarters. I still have the roll of quarters so, technically, I’m only down $8 (the $16 from KENO minus the $3 food savings minus the $5 they gave me over what I gave them in quarters).

Ron Lewis, one of the friends on the trip, says my math is all wrong. When you gamble and bet $10, the money is no longer yours. It’s on the table so it belongs to the casino. If you get $2 dollars back, you’re not “down” $8, you’ve won $2. If I don’t understand that I’ll never be a gambler. I do understand it, but I don’t see it that way and I’ll never be a gambler.

So the question is, if I don’t gamble and don’t play golf, why do I go on this trip at all? The answer goes back to why we do most things and that is family and friends. From these trips we have stories and memories you can’t buy. One of the guys that used to go on this trip died a few years ago, and it’s on these trips that we remember the stories and “bring him back” for a time.

Couple that with the fact that a 12 mile loop of my Sunday 15 miler was from one lake to another 6 miles away on the Michigan Wisconsin border through a desolate state forest. In the entire two hours I saw three cars and they all waved like they knew me. The peace and serenity that run brought me couldn’t be duplicated here. 

So on the training front, Thursday was a travel day there (Iron River in the U.P. is around 500 miles away), I ran 9 miles Friday, took Saturday off for golf, casino and a trip to Houghton, ran 15 miles Sunday, and Monday was a travel day back. Three days of rest in five days sounds like too much. But in the Q & A section of my training website, others have asked the question about the same type of break for weddings, business trips, family vacations, etc. and the coaches have said it probably does more good than harm. Some people need the physical recovery time, some the mental recovery time, and some still have to work to make a living.

So I’m ready to go back at it. I missed a 6-7 hour long bike and wasn’t in the water at all. The lake we stayed at was chilly and the night-time temp got down around 38 so I was happy to not get wet. The coaches say not to try and make up what you lost, but get right back into the groove. Since this is a recovery week, and I’ve already recovered, I will probably substitute last weekend’s schedule with this weekend (yes, the coaches say that’s OK) with a little longer bike but not a longer run.

It’s less than four weeks to go until the “Big Race” and I’m still not in panic mode.

Just (At Peace With The World) Jack