prosopis -- GL with the 5K. Road races are tons of fun if for no other reason than to give you something to train for. They're great for breaking up the monotony of maintenance training.
The_Man -- Nice. I hear you on the cooler weather (see below).
pmbrown -- Good job.
BnB --
This really sucks. Hope it turns out to be something minor.
gruecd -- I love how a 12-mile run denotes a "taper" period on your calendar. I never have to worry about overestimating my abilities as long as you're a regular here.
D_House -- Good bounceback on the 15-miler. For the knees: ice and ibubrofen.
_______________________________
I decided to take advantage of the temporary cool weather to move my long run up to today. What a difference 25 degrees makes. 22 miles @ 9:35 and it couldn't have been any easier. As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I chose to do this run on a semi-abandoned track on campus. I got up early with the idea of getting the first 10 miles in before sun-up; this was mainly just to break up the run a little so it wouldn't be so monotonous. It was 52 degrees when I got started and I was actually slightly uncomfortable because of the chill -- when was the last time any of us could say that? Anyway, the cumulative effect of my training program has definitely caught up to me because for the past couple of weeks, I've been pretty wiped out. Even just sitting around the house, I'm tired all the time. Around mile 6, I noticed that my legs were starting to get kind of tired, which was a worrisome sign at that point, but they never got significantly worse. When I did a quick inventory at mile 18, my legs really weren't any more tired than they had been back at mile 6. Before I knew it, I had 20 miles in the book, and then boom it was over. Unlike two weeks ago, when I had to walk a bit to finish my 20-miler, I'm 100% confident that I could have done 26.2 today if I had to. In fact, at this point I think it might even be easier to do 26.2 with a group than it will be to do 22-24 in a couple of weeks by myself.
Running on this track in the early morning is not something I'm ever doing again, though. There are no lights on the track itself. The only lighting comes from lamps on side streets, many of which are blocked by the trees that provide a windbreak for the track. So only a little less than half the track is illuminated, while the rest is dark. This wasn't that big a deal because of the full moon and because I had cleared out lane 6 a couple of days ago and I wasn't worried about tripping over anything. What I hadn't counted on is the number of animals on the track. There were quite a few rabbits in the brush, and they would often dart into the track in front of me. I could also see them hopping around in the infield, playing their little rabbit games. This was fine; the rabbits just made me feel a little closer to nature. What was not fine was when (during mile 3), I looked over to see a skunk walking around about three feet off the track. Intellectually, I know that the skunk was probably more afraid of me than I was of him, but when you're out for a nice, relaxing run, the last thing you want to encounter -- other than LHUCKS of course -- is a skunk. So from that point until sunrise, I was paranoid about encountering that skunk again, and every time a rabbit jumped out into my path my heart shot up in my throat a little. Fortunately I managed to avoid getting sprayed or getting rabies, so it's all good.
Thoughts and prayers, GB.
Thoughts and prayers, GB.
Thoughts and prayers, GB.
It's a chilly 62 here this morning with a forecasted high of only 72. I'm chompin' at the bit to get out there today. 
!!!
Speedy and easy recovery, bnb.
Life got in the way yesterday, so I ended up taking an unscheduled day off. As such, I'm doubling up today. Did an easy 4-miler this morning, and I'll head to the track tonight for 8 miles including 5 x 600M at 5K pace. Shooting for 6-minute pace on the 600s, so about 2:15/repeat with 90-second recovery intervals.
I'm in SSL3 dude - I just haven't done the WSLs or the MBSLs for a long time.
!!!!
