Every mile is two in winter.
-George Herbert

I find this quote true to the fullest extent. Two days ago was the first time since last February or March where I stepped out the door and felt like I just got blasted hard in the face by what is Minnesota. And I was layered up hardcore - long sleeve, short sleeve, water/windproof jacket, tights, pants, two socks, hat, gloves. I was way overdressed. Way overdressed. It took awhile to warm up the muscles to move the way I intended them to. And with all those variables, it seemed as if I was working way, way, way harder trying to get in a simple 11 mile run than I would in the summer. I want to call this poor man's altitude (minus the blood chemistry changes) where the body is working way harder to run slower.

Yesterday, the four of us hammered out a 24-25 miler from the SLP LTF. For me, it was exactly like a marathon in terms of going in and out of the feeling good-feeling worse state. But at the end of the thing I honestly had that special feeling where the body and mind tell you that it is time to bust a really good marathon. There are five weeks until we will find that out and until then I will just keep plugging away at it. There is some difficult training over the coming 3 weeks, but if the storm can be weathered, sickness can be avoided, and injury dodged then chaos might just ensue down in Houston.