Monday, 9 weeks to go

I'm guessing that we will soon be blasted with pre-race coverage of the Olympic Trials Marathon(s). This is a good thing. It is also a bad thing. Obviously, any excitement that stems from promoting the greatest sport on the planet is a good thing. But for the love of God, if I see any more running coverage that is extremely below average I am going to, well, I don't know but take Benjamin Franklin's advice..."Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” I will now get off my soap box.

Last week was relatively high in terms of miles. Obviously, nothing compared to the marathon vet Jason Robert Lehmkuhle who threw in 140 plus. But I was up there and had some good workouts including a 28 miler where sub 6 minute miles near the 3 hour mark didn't seem like sub 6 minute miles. In a good way. But I very much wanted that sucker to be done when mile 23 rolled around. We averaged some good splits last Monday over 40 minutes of "threshold" running. What exactly is threshold I will never be able to say, but our last mile was 4:33 and I was pleased.

It appears we have some k repeats scheduled for Wednesday of this week. I need to wrap my head around the fact that it is November and the weather hasn't kicked us in the nuts yet. I see some 30s as high temps in the near future, but it's nearly Thanksgiving and we have gotten in some good work on iceless trails and for that I am thankful.

The minute it gets too bad to run fast outside, I am hightailing it to Phoenix. The wife has given me permission after "making sure" a million times that this is an ok thing to do. Unfortunately, our gas bill will skyrocket over this 3 week stretch as I am sure the furnace will be jacked up to 75+ during my 3 week hiatus. Oh, the sacrifices.

Looking forward to racing the Manchester Road Race for my 3rd and final time in Manchester, CT, on Thanksgiving Day. This is a great race on a fairly, but not too fairly, difficult course. I have been disappointed in my previous two results there so hopefully the third time will be the charm.