Another one bites the dust

The countdown is fully on. Training is clicking along and I'm feeling good. The legs are tired and a few little race day demons started to swirl until Coach gave me a good bit of advice, I beat them down, and added another successful week to the calendar. I'd better pile up the weeks if I'm going to double down against this animal! What a race! Between you, me, and the two other readers of this blog, part of me feels like living with a World Champion is kind of like cheating but whatever! Just jokes, just jokes. I'm stoked that Beth is crushing it. I have someone to draft off of in Vegas now until I can bust out my patented 'finishing chute kick'!

After getting a breather from Tim last week it was on like Donkey Kong this week with intensity and distance in full force.

Two key workouts last week were an interval run and a progression run.
The interval was 4x200m on 50' with 200m easy jog recovery followed by 5x1mile on 1'walk recovery and an easy jog into the next interval. The instructions were to not look at the watch during the mile but to run them at an intensity that felt the same as the 200's. The loose goal was around 6:40-6:45/mile. Crazy ass brain training.


Um, so I guess that works. I swear these felt like they were the same effort as the 200's but turned out they were a little faster. Nice!
Got a couple days to chill before the next big effort so me and Violet went down to check out the Mud Bay wildlife habitat . Gunner and I do our long runs down here. It's a sweet hard packed lightly graveled trail that runs about 15 miles along the coastline through a wildlife protection area. We've seen coyotes, tons of great blue herons and the biggest freaking bald and golden eagles ever! It's crazy to be so close to an animal that incredible. So intimidating. Yeah, I'm as big as you but I have a beak, sharp talons, and did I mention I can fly?
Today, Brian and I saw a bald eagle pull a fish out of the ocean, fly to shore and eat it at a distance of about 20 feet. RAD! Not so cool when one of these giants takes off from a telephone pole and circles around 10 feet above your head. Hmmmm, that's weird. My pace has dropped and yet my HR has spiked through the roof !

Anyways, Violet and I went down there to check it out but not before making sure that we were fully hydrated.




The trail is along the right side (obviously) and goes to the horizon and beyond. Just a fantastic spot to run.






It was very windy and before long Violet wanted me to get her out of there and away from the wind. Well, the wind and all the toddler stealing bald eagles! You can see the grass all bent over and the trees over her shoulder swaying in the wind. The look on her face is classic.


The other effort of the week was a progression run: short W/U, 3 miles@7:10 (race pace), 1 mile at 7:00 and 2 miles@6:45.




I felt good about this effort on a day I woke up feeling a little heavy legged.
Cap that all off with a solid "old school LSD" 24 miles today and I'm ready to sleep in, hit the sauna and start it all over again tomorrow.