Crossroads

After a lot of discussion about whether or not my training would continue, Jamie and I decided that I should continue on with my efforts towards qualifying for Boston. I was really feeling like it was selfish of me to ask Jamie to support me in that goal given everything that's happened but she was quite insistent that I not quit now, with only 14 weeks (yikes) left. She made the great point that probably in a month, or two, or three, when I had healed up a little, I would look back with regret on my decision to stop running. And I think she's right.

With that in mind, and getting closer every day to my goal race (which may be changing!Stay tuned for the official announcement. Let's just say it's a little dryer than Seattle) I figured that I should probably switch over from base building and start adding some faster (relative term!)efforts to my schedule. Problem was, I didn't have any idea how to do that. So, after a couple emails, some begging and a very generous bribe, Lucho agreed to help guide me through the next 14 or so weeks. Just kidding about the bribe. That man has too much character to accept a bribe. All I had to do was ask. And just in time too. I can't tell you how excited I am to have a coach like Tim willing to work with me. This is a fast dude who's just geeked out on running and has some pretty impressive athletes already in the stable, including this California Speedster! I better change it up from FatDad to FastDad if I want to roll with this crew!

To get away from things for a bit, Jamie, Violet and I headed out to Saskatchewan to see Jamie's parents. For those of you who may not have heard of this extraordinary place, I've attached a map. It's the one in red with the creatively drawn borders.




The shape of the province gives you a good idea of what you should expect from Saskatchewan if you should ever go there. If you can imagine what a rectangle would look like if you could turn it into a landscape, you'd get Sask. It's one massive prairie.

Jamie's folks have a 20 acre hobby farm about 20 miles outside of Swift Current in the Southwest corner of the province and it was awesome to get out there and chill for a bit. We stayed a week and the weather was sunny and hot the whole time we were there. Early mornings even on vacation to get some running in before it got too hot.

Trip was good, and it was the first week on the new schedule from Tim. I told him I was looking forward to hurting a little and learned quickly that I need to choose my words more carefully! This definately wasn't base building anymore. 60 mile week and felt great.
One thing about the prairies in the Summer: they are a runners dream. In the morning, I walked to the end of the driveway and looked to the right:

Then to the left:

And off I went. Hundreds of miles of dirt and gravel roads in every direction. Just me, the moose,(yup, two crossed the road about half a mile in front of me. HR spiked up and I was stopped!) the antelopes, the owls, the gophers, the cows, the buffaloes, the falcons, and the grasshoppers. Oh, sweet mother, the grasshoppers. On my Sunday long run I was out for 2:30 and I saw four cars and a tractor. What more could you ask for?