hills build strength

Target race is coming up in two weeks. After six plus weeks of 60 plus mile weeks, I'm still not in race shape. Didn't realize how much was lost until Speedy mentioned his VDOT and I looked up mine. Pretty eye opening the gap that needs to be closed to be in the same shape as my last decent race. The 5k race coming will just be a bench mark to build on for the remainder of spring and summer 5k attempts. The short speed stuff is coming, but I lack the strength or endurance to pull it all together for 5k.

Decided to go run a long run on the hills with the fast guys again this weekend. Thankfully they weren't in any big hurry with a pace that was manageable for me. One thing that really stands out in all the different programs all of the guys are using for all of the different race distance they're training; is hills. Everyone is doing some kind of hill workout. For me, its the hilly long run. Ideally Percy Warner Park every three weeks is a great strength builder. Haven't been out there in forever. Maybe this spring.

Wore my new Road ID on the long run as well. First time I've ever worn one on my ankle. Comfortable enough, didn't even know it was on. It's been a long time since I've worn any kind of ID when I run. In the past I'd go to X Mart and get a dog tag engraved with my name, address and telephone number. I'd lace it to my shoe and forget about it, until I changed shoes. Since I've moved back to Tennessee, probably 7 years have gone by since I've worn one. Plus, I wear a different pair of shoes on each run. Usually only 2 shoes, but never on successive days.

Bottled up our batch of home brewed English Brown Ale the other day. Color is a rusty almost caramel and the ABV calculates to 4.4%. Pretty successful brew, the flat beer tasted pretty good. Real test will be in 10 days after it's carbonated and settled some. Went out to Mom's and picked up a case of 750 ml Fischer Pils bottles with the flip tops and a case of Grolsch 16 ouncer's with the same. The Fischer's are from the early 70's when we lived in Germany. Cool old bottle, the stopper portion is ceramic versus the hard plastic used on the Grolsch. She also gave me an old 5 gallon carboy that my grandmother had picked up in Mexico. Sadly, we did manage to break one old wine carboy. It was probably older than the other one, looked to be blown glass, little thinner and almost a round shape. Luckily neither of us were cut when it broke.