week 15 recap

I've already started to make adjustments in this training cycle. Friday's brutal cold forced a wimpout of my planned 12 by 200 meter repeats. Talked myself into doing 400 meter hill repeats on Saddle Drive and then decided 5 degrees and wind just wasn't where I wanted to be. Debated whether or not to go to Sportscom and run on the indoor track or dreadmill. That plan lost out because, I needed the speed not just another run and I hate running on the dreadmill. But, in missing that run I did also miss hitting 60 miles this week.

Saturday the temperatures rose a little and I was able to get 8 miles on the greenway. I started real late, almost 8 am. Wind was still pretty strong the whole way out, but pretty much at my back the whole way home. Saw 2 things on the greenway I've never seen. Don't know if it was the cold or maybe his/her favorite fishing spot was iced over. A great blue heron was standing on the side of the trail and didn't fly off until I was within about 10 feet. Awesome bird, wingspan and standing height easily 4 or 5 foot. Never have seen one that close. Secondly, a half a dozen chocolate covered donuts. That was really puzzling. First, that the were uneaten, the birds didn't even want them? Or that anyone is walking,running, biking, in-line skating or whatever and throws out their donuts. Blasphemy!

We went to see "Mall Cop" Saturday afternoon. Still cold and windy. Typical movie theme, boy wants girl, with a couple of funny scenes throw in for excitement. Lots of different twists from the normal made the movie interesting. Darrell didn't really care for it, Paula and Dylan thought it was funny. I'd give it a 6. Didn't quite make it as a comedy and not enough action. It was better than "Beer for my Horses", which isn't saying much. Dylan and watched that later saturday evening and I fell asleep. Some movies just never really click.

Legend of the Seeker was good this week. I'm really getting into this series. The local station carries the new episode at 7 pm and then last week's episode afterwards. Watched the "Deena" episode for the second time. Only down side to watching this stuff on television is the commercials, seems like they come on every 3 minutes and last for 4 minutes. May have to start recording the show and skipping through the commercials. Surfed around for some of the comments about the show and seems the readers of the book are disappointed with the series, because it doesn't follow the books. I'll need to pick up the books to make the comparison, but this is one of the better scifi/fantasy series to come along in quite awhile. I can't think of any show in the past that it even comes close. Most are of the space theme. The Harry Potter stuff is similar.

Long run today was a modified pace run. Started out with the fast guys and hoped for 14 miles around 7:15 to 7:30 pace. They stopped around 2 miles in for a nature break and I continued on. I figured they would catch me around 4 miles in, just past the crest of Spain Hill. Temperatures were warm compared to what we've had the past couple of days, right around 37 degrees to start. I wore shorts for the first time in several days. I stopped at 8 miles in to down a powergel and see where the guys were. I had to wait a couple of minutes before I could see them coming roughly a quarter mile back. I took off counting on them catching me in the next mile. They didn't overtake me until just past 10 miles, just after cresting the last hill for the day. They flew by me like I was standing still. Tried to pick it up to keep them as close as possible, but they gapped me really quick. I was just able to keep them in sight until about a mile to go. My glutes started tightening in the final 2 miles and I wasn't able to stay on pace as well. Still managed to average 7:22 pace for the run. Next time, I'll need to bring the succeed caps, the gatorade didn't work as well.

Kinda fun being the one chased in the run this morning. It kept my effort honest, because I kept expecting the guys to overtake me. When they didn't pass me at 4 miles in after cresting Spain Hill, I pushed the downhills and maintained on the inclines. At 6 miles in when I made the turn onto the hills of St. John I really expected to see them. Really surprised when I stopped at 8 miles with how long it took for them to come into sight. Found out after we finished they'd stopped another time to shed a layer of clothing.