Big Racing Weekend!

New York Marathon field starting to shape up, some good runners doing ESPN's Body Issue, Makau aims for Olympic title, Chicago Marathon's elite field, Geb wants an earlier start to the Olympic marathon, higher temps suck, Sally Kipyego, Kenyan Olympic team needs to pick 1 more male (very controversial - many deserving runners that will be left out), Geb is motivated for more, German Fernandez on the comeback circuit, and the USA 10 Mile Championships this weekend.

Wednesday, September 28 - 9 miles (1 up, 7 mile tempo (45:50), 1 down). Important run for me, as I missed last week's tempo and needed to get in a good long tempo to see where I was at. Big River Wild Wednesday workout with Crystal and Tim on Grant's Trail. Nice weather, but the air was noticeably heavy. Kind of felt like poop, but made it out there and hoped to get in 6-8 miles at 1/2 marathon pace. Quick warmup with the group, then got under way. Felt great the first couple miles and ran with Crystal, but hit a few traffic lights which disrupted my rhythm. Fell off a little bit, and made the turn around feeling ok. Hit both stop lights again, which were killer, and was working hard to hit pace coming in. Last mile, felt a little better, but had some stomach pains which sucked. Made it in, thought about killing myself for 1 more mile, but called it a day. 1 mile cooldown with Crystal and Tim, and called it a day. Tempo splits were: 6:25, 6:26, 6:32, 6:41 (eek! Turn around, lost a few seconds from being lazy), 6:38 (stoplight), 6:35, 6:27. Feel ok about this workout, but was beating myself up a little bit for falling off pace (final avg was 6:32 min/mile). Big kudos to Crystal for hitting her 10 miler right at 6:25 min/mile avg pace, and Tim for hitting his 3x2 mile at 7:45-8 min/mile average pace.

Thursday, September 29 - 5 miles (44:53). Out and back on Old Faithful on a brisk fall evening. Ran with Pat and Crystal. Legs were heavy and left knee was bothering me a little. Negative split this every mile, albeit we started with a first mile of 9:12. Went 2 out and 2 back, but looped around the neighborhood for an extra mile. Original plan was 6 total, but both of us have some collective fatigue so cut back slightly.

Friday, September 30 - 4 miles (36:28). Early morning run with Crystal. Kept it at recovery pace to have fresh legs for tomorrow's 5K. Amazing how dark it is at 6 a.m., and this morning was cold and windy. Legs felt exactly the same as yesterday, which isn't the best sign, but glad to have the run out of the way. Skipped drills to conserve some energy.

Had a dream last night that Crystal and I finished 1-2 in tomorrow's 5K (Race for Lymphoma 5K). Would be awesome if that came true. Big weekend of races with my teammates Brian and Margaret Lyons running the Twin Cities Marathon for an Olympic Trials berth. Both have been killing their workouts, and have a great chance to do so. The USA 10 Mile Championships is also this weekend - Stephen Pifer is competing, so hoping he can finish high there. Good luck to all!