Marathon ready?

Running:
Marathon 19 is now only a couple days away.   For this marathon I will have to rely on the volume of training already in the books and hopefully a little race day magic.  At this point all training is completed and the only thing that can possibly help my time now is a couple days of complete rest.  Last week I ran a total of 31 miles with only one longer run.  On Saturday I ran 12 miles with most of the middle miles at expected race pace.  This was a good run and gave me a little confidence for my expected time on Saturday.  This week I only put in 14 miles with runs on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  I will be resting tomorrow and Friday.  My miles for this month are a little light, but that was on purpose.  A high volume since finishing the 50k about 4 weeks ago would not have been helpful.  For the year I've logged 1229 miles which is above where I have been the last few years.  As mentioned I will be relying on this base to get me through Grandma's.  Right now the weather is looking to be as good as I could ask for.  Low of 50 and a high of 70 with a chance for NE to E wind. 
Logistically this race will be a little tougher than usual.  I will be staying overnight in Bayfield so I'll need to get an early start in order to make it to Superior were I intend on catching the bus transport to the start.   If I get everything ready the night before I won't have to get up much earlier, just need to eat and get going right away.  Hope everything all works out.   Miles through today.
WTD 14
MTD 77
YTD 1229
ODO 28500

Hunting:   
Not much going on here.  I did manage to get the corn and sunflowers planted in the food plot.  I got them in yesterday just in time for the rain today.  I have some minor repair to do on my hunting blind in the back yard.  The wind blew off one of the windows.  The hinges were small and only into some thin particle board doors I had cut in half to use for the windows.  Didn't hold up too well.

Gardening:
Right now I have everything in the garden planted except one more crop of beans.  I saved a place to put in some bean towers to try growing pole beans for the first time.  First I need to build the bean towers.  I've seen a few model designs on the internet to try.  I still have a few weeks if I need it to get this done.   As usual there are a few seeds that didn't sprout requiring replanting of partial rows and to fill in squash and pumpkin hills.  The carrots got the worst of it.  They sprouted right when we had the three 90+ degree days.  Not good for such small fragile seedlings.  The strawberries are starting to come in.  This is a couple weeks later that usual for here.  There are quite a few though and they are quite large this year so far.  After I return from the marathon I will have the rest of next week off to try and completely catch up with all the yard work.  And there is a lot of it.
 

May wrap up

Running:
Since I’ve been on Facebook my postings have become much less frequent.  Much easier to just post a quick status update that type a long blog post.  First to recap the rest of May since my last post.  Running has gone quite well since the IceAge 50k.  Recovery was pretty quick from the longer effort.  I remember discussing this with a couple other runners on race day that it is actually easier to recover from the longer trail race than a road marathon.   Basically the weeks after the 50k were a reverse taper.  A couple days off and then 38 miles the immediate week after, followed by 44 the next.   No runs were longer than 11 miles.  On May 30th I made it out to Lapham state park and ran 9 miles on the trails.  It was a nice change of pace, and a great day for a run.  I’m beginning to learn the trails a bit.  There are a couple loops of the ski trail called “the rollercoaster” and “the wall”.  These portions are properly described.  After completing about 6 miles on the hilly east side of highway “C” I ventured across the road to the west side to see what those trails were like.  This area is much more open and prairie like than the heavily wooded hills on the other side of the park.  I added a nice 3 more miles before calling it a day.   Adding on 5 more miles on 5/31 and I brought my monthly total to 206.  A pretty good total considering there was a target race in the middle of the month requiring a reduction in miles both before and after.  This is the 5th month in a row over 200.   June 1 was the deadline for signing up for Grandma’s marathon in Duluth.  With only a few hours left I decided to register.   My dilemma now is to figure out how to train these two weeks until race day.  I’m thinking now I have a pretty good base.  I have 6 runs of over 20 miles in this year so far including a marathon back in April and the 50k last month.  I will likely go for something in the 2 hour range this weekend and then 1.5 hours next.  In between will be a few off days and runs of 5 to 7 miles.   Probably just some race pace miles,  short tempo, and fast finish thrown into the shorter stuff.  If the weather is OK on race day I will try to tag along with the 3:20 pace group.  If it is hot again like the last two times I ran this marathon I will adjust appropriately and also will never even think of running this again unless they move the registration close much closer to race day. 
Totals through May 31:
WTD 14
MTD 206
YTD 1153
ODO 28424

Hunting:
The clover I put in my food plot is doing quite well this spring.  My design will change a little this year.  I’m going to leave the clover grow basically in a circle outlining the area.  In the very center well within bow range I will plant several short rows of corn since this is what the deer seem to come in for come late season.  Whatever room I have between the corn and the clover I will plant with a fall crop such as winter rye or forage oats.  It is definitely fawning season now.  I’ve seen a couple probably ony a few days old over the last couple weeks.  You can also tell by the large number of animals on the side of the highways.  During rut season or fawn drop you always see an increase in road kill because of the increased activity.

Gardening:
I always try to have the garden planted by the end of May.  This year was no different.  After tilling once more a couple weeks ago I took a few hours before or after work in the succeeding days preparing the rows.  Then started planting this same way.  Potatoes one day, onions the next, sweet potatoes and peas, then sweet corn, then last weekend finished everything else including carrots, kohlrabi, beets, beans, lettuce, spinach, three kinds of watermelon, cucumbers, summer squash, and 4 kinds of winter squash.   Asparagus and Rhubarb harvests are well underway right now.  I have some space saved for an addition few rows of sweet corn and green beans that I will plant in a couple weeks.  My last thing to finish is my pumpkin patch.  This year I will plant 20 hills of pumpkins, 16 of an orange variety and 4 white.  As long as I get this done by this weekend there should be plenty of growing days left before we get a frost.   Here are a few pictures of the garden before much growth or the weeds try to take over.