1/80TH

I had a pretty solid weekend of training. Saturday I did a group run of 12 miles. I definitely can’t hang with the pace like I could 6 weeks ago, but I can still get the miles in. In the afternoon, I was able to squeeze in 45 minutes of skiing while the girls were at a birthday party. That gave me 40 miles of running, plus another 22 “miles” of skiing.

Sunday I followed it up with a 20 mile run along my Boston-simulator course. Being a math-guy, my mind tends to wonder to things like being 50% done or two-thirds of the way done – especially if I’m on the treadmill. It’s usually not a bad thing – kind of helps pass the time. However, when you’re a quarter mile into a long run and you think “I’m 1/80th of the way done” it’s going to be a long day. It probably didn’t help that I spent the first 70 minutes running into the wind – the one major flaw with my Boston-simulator course. And it probably didn’t help that I ran hills Friday and pretty hard on Saturday. Kind of feels like I’m trying to whip myself back into running shape.

Given the three fairly hard days in a row, I took yesterday completely off. I was going to ski, but when the temperature dropped from 35 to 0 (and -20 with the windchill) in the span of 8 hours, I decided to rest.

This morning I realized why we have these really cold stretches of weather. It’s to keep more people from moving here. Can you imagine how packed this area would be if the temps were milder?

I don’t think I ever made it official, but I did register for this Saturday’s Kortelopet, which is part of the Birkie weekend. For those you not familiar with it, the Birkie is the largest x-c ski race in North America. I grew up an hour from the event, but have never participated as an athlete, spectator or volunteer. I’m looking forward to the 23K “race”. I’d like to do well, but really have no idea what to expect. I’ll be in last of 10 waves, which means I’ll be about the six-thousandth person along the trail. It’ll be an adventure if nothing else.

Quote of the day;

“Stress, recovery, improve, that’s all training is. You’d think any damn fool could do it.” – Bill Bowerman