5 Weeks to GO?!

Yea, since I don't count the last week.  There's really no training, so week zero is the week of the race.  Which makes me all sorts of nervous.

Good News.  Found out that Robbie Watson is running STWM.  My other hero, Reid Coolsaet is injured and not running, so I was super bummed.  But now, with Robbie in the mix, this would be fun first 10 miles!! Robbie says he's going to be sporting a beard so this should be interesting.  Whose Robbie?  Here's Robbie.

He's the grinning Canadian giant in black on the left corner. 


I got in trouble with Coach Terry because, well, I didn't run easy as easy last week...I'm still trying to grasp how running easy (ie slow) is supposed to benefit, so it's hard for me to understand brain-wise.

Monday 9/2:  Labor Day.  Got to sleep in a bit went for easy 6M on East River Park.  I'm starting to condition for endless flatness. 

Tuesday 9/3:  Tempo Interval.  I had a bit of a struggle working the West Drive hills at 7:20-7:30 pace.  This should have been pretty easy to do.  Not sure why.  Maybe cuz I didn't take it easy Monday.  By that evening, I apparently felt good enough to once again, not do easy as easy.  Ran with Mr. Blackstone, and nearly killed him.  And I had to go poop. 

Wednesday 9/4:  I could've sworn this was the usual middle miles at MP.  To be honest, I couldn't remember, so I just ran at whatever that felt good. 

Thursday 9/5:  Obviously, had to pay for the feel good run by struggling to push out the 8X400m Tavern on the Hell Repeats.  I got in the designated time of 1:50s, but it wasn't fun.

Friday 9/6:  Sweet, sweet, recovery day.  Went to Depeche Mode concert...

Saturday 9/7:  Autism Speaks 4M Race.  This season, I haven't had a sub 7:30 pace 4Mer.  It's partly because I haven't really aimed for one and partly because my weekly runs are hard.  So this race, I really wanted to do well.  It wasn't my best, but I got it under 30 minutes and while I wanted under 29, I'll take this. 

Sunday 9/8:  5X Harlem Hill & 3X Cat Hill.  Not at particularly fast pace, but it involved some big hills. I don't think I've ever done 5 Harlem Hills in one long run.  It went fine until mile 13, my bonking point.  I was already at low point when I ran into Komen Pink Ladies and I lost all my running mojo.  It was not only a stop-n-go traffic, I lost my mental power to keep going through the bonking point.  The takeaway from this failed 20Mer is that I still bonk at mile 13 and 13-16 is my weakest point.  I should remember this and tell myself, "yea, it's bonking point.  It'll get better in 24 minutes"...