seven weeks out

Hit 60.9 miles this week on 6 day days of running. Didn't run this morning, so still just streaking for 6 days at a time. Seems like every other run this past week was in the rain. The long run last week was pouring rain as was this weeks. Steady state run on Thursday was raining the entire way as well.

Weight is still stuck at 160 pounds. Seems like the same thing happened when I increased the mileage last year. Still hope to drop five pounds by race day. I did start back on lifting weights twice a week. At least that helps to keep the arms firm. The big mileage is about the only thing that seems to melt that last few pounds around the middle of the belly. Never have been able to maintain a constant regime of crunches or sit ups.

The guys I've been running with (the herd) are mostly all back running. Some are running strong, some are coming back from injury and some sharpening up the speed or focused on the next race. All of this diversity makes some of the training runs really interesting. We all usually start off together for a few miles of warmup and then separate as everyone gets into their individual workouts or comfort zones. Nice when we are all able to run from start to finish together, but that is really difficult with the different levels of training/fitness/talent.

BQ1 was able to defend his masters title at the Zoo run on Saturday. He's running super strong. Even able to come out in the rain on Sunday morning and pull me through 11 miles of the Spain loop. We did the loop backwards to get "the hill" over with first. Doesn't really matter how you do that loop its rolling hills the entire way. His scheduled workout called for 20 minutes of "moderate". We started that after the last major hill. Pretty tough workout 14 hours after racing. I was able to keep pace most of the way. Lost ground on the uphills, gained it back on the downhills. Still he pulled away in the last 5 minutes. Guess he was either ready to be done or wanted to see how much gas he had left in the tank. I'll just be glad to maintain that kind of pace for six miles this coming thursday.