Tuesday August 28th

As you know, on Tuesday nights we meet at Gear West for faster paced workouts.  Every week, someone will bring a workout for us...last week, Jeff had us run 11 with 8 at 6:58 pace...I nailed that run and felt pretty amazing, finishing strong.  This week, Barry brought HIS workout, 12 miles as follows: 1 mile easy at 7:49 pace, 10 miles run at 7:09 pace, and 1 mile at 7:49 pace to CD.
Barry and I were joined once again by Anders, Jan and Luke...a smaller group than last week, but the IMWI athletes are in the middle of sharpening/taper phases, so we probably won't see them again until Spring.
Mile 1, 7:48...nice.  Miles 2-6 were all run at 6:55-7:06...I felt really good again...a lot of pop in the step, though both ankles were a tad sore, as was my left calf...wth?  Time for new shoes?
After the turnaround I tried to up the ante just a hair...soon we were down to 4, then 3...not on purpose, but by mile 9, it was just Luke and I.  I'm feeling good...off in the distance there was a couple on their bikes cruising down the Luce Line..."Can we reel them in, Luke?"  Well, we DID catch then, though it took a solid 2 miles!  We ran mile 10 in 6:11 and mile 11 in 5:39...nipping the cyclists at the line :)  I felt great, though I'm not sure how much longer I could have held 5:39 pace.  Running at 6:20-6:40 pace seems to be optimum for me...it's work though I seem to be able to run that for miles!  Goal pace at TCM?  6:35, baby!

A quick note...my weight has been steady at 178.5...I woke Wednesday morning to 175.2...ouch!  Time for Taco Tuesday or a Culver's Butter Burger :)

Next week, Anders...bring it!

Twin Cities Marathon...

...and before I forget, I found out Sunday that I received an Elite Comp Entry into the Twin Cities Marathon scheduled for October 7th!
The plan, with less than 6 weeks to train, is to attack the 'plan' with a goal time of 2:52:30.
With this goal time, that would generally place me in the top 8 in the 45-49 age group...TCM is once again the Master's Marathon National Championships...last year 2:52 would have finished 4th, the year before it wouldn't have placed.  Who knows...so much is both weather related and depending on who shows up. 
I think I'm probably in 3:02 shape right now, with 5+ weeks to go...I can get there...with a lot of hard work. 

Welcome back...

It seems like it's been months since I last posted...oh wait, is HAS been! 
I had an eventful summer, making the decision to not race in NYC was hard, but in the end I believe it was the right decision.  I really wanted to roll, but...
I was able, however, to recover from my pesky chronic fatigue syndrome that hit me hard this past Spring...what an awful feeling.
I did, however, have a pretty decent summer of training...not so much the swim, but I was able to spend a lot of time on the bike and was able to average about 35 miles per week of running, some a bit more, some less, though in the end, I'm feeling pretty good.

Stay tuned...crazy train-ing is coming!