Planning Works?

Who knew?!?!?!

Ran this morning, kept to the run 5 walk 1 religiously, and averaged a 10:15 for 7.5 miles, including 3 repeats on Goat Hill. Debating how to run the 13 miler next Saturday, maybe a run 6 or 7 walk 1, but I really think I need a plan, especially for the start. Once we hit the green trail, it's flat enough that if I'm feeling good I can kick it up, but I'd hate to run out of gas early. 26 males signed up so far, so I'm thinking my odds of placing aren't good, but who knows how the age groups will fall. Granted, with only one prize per age group, I'm still screwed, but hey, I'll try to size everyone up.

It was a really pretty morning to run. Took a great picture of the mists over the Catawba around 7:30, tried to capture the doe I spooked, unfortunately she was too fast and agile. Think I'll bring my camera on the race, just for posterity. It was really fun to realize that even though it was 30 degrees, at most, after 50 minutes of running I would have sworn it was nearly 60. Just goes to show that cold can't really stop a training run, because it goes away. And then comes back like a mo-fo. My face was raw after! Pain is temporary, blah blah blah.

Might do another run at USNWC tomorrow, while Stephanie and Maya climb, just a short 3 miler, probably. Rain on Sunday will shut it down for a few days, so I need to get in all I can, hopefully with one last training run on Wednesday before the race.

No real goals for the race. I'd love to set a new PR, which would just involve beating 2:09:22. I'm confident that I could do that on a road course, since I feel strong and know that I'm better at hills than I was in 2006 for DC, but the level of hills we have at Whitewater is just too intense to do that, at least until I'm a lot slimmer and faster. If I can do the 13 miles with a smile on my face, and a confident stride, running from the treeline until we cross the finish line, I'll be happy.

Especially since I'm hashing later that day.