Training in Montana

4 and a quarter at Noon at the Y. 48 outside and overcast which was perfect conditions. Sure wish I could ever run a marathon in these temps. I went a bit fast the first couple miles, but I felt good. Nice to recover so quickly from the Friday death walk.

Had a great weekend with my wife down in West Yellowstone. The park is closed for a month but the cross country ski area in West is still open so we enjoyed that Saturday morning then went for a walk down the road in Yellowstone for a mile or so. She forgot her running shoes and the Dansko clogs gave her a blister after a mile. Bummer. Sunday we drove through the Gardiner entrance all the way to the Cooke City entrance and back. Saw elk, mountain sheep, and a wolf along the way. No bears or moose and no baby buffalo yet either. They are cute.

Undelay, undelay! I felt like Speedy Gonzalez this morning doing my 8 miles and finishing just after 7 am in time for family cereal & scripture. Legs felt really good. I probably shouldn't have pushed it like I did, but I got a late start and wanted to be back home with the fam. At times my legs were a bit fatigued but not very bad as it didn't take much effort to keep pushing. Kind of fun actually. I'll take it easy tomorrow, rest day Thursday, then an easy 10 Friday so my 22 this Saturday won't be the death march from Hades like last week.

AP: 7:48

6 miles this morning downtown with my friend Bill. It's amazing how quickly 48 minutes go by when chatting the whole time. I also learned that an 8 minute pace is not a conversational pace for me. But I don't mind talking in gasps.

AP: 7:58

10 miles from home this morning starting at 5:35 am. I haven't done a whole lot of headlamp running the past 6 months because I just plain don't like it. I'd much rather run a treadmill watching shows of my choice than watching a beam of light on the road ahead of me. So glad summer is getting closer.

Ran 10 on my secondary route and it was fine, although they recently regravelled the road and some places it is hard to find traction. I move side to side to find tire tracks and it's tough. But enough complaining. The weather was fantastic, 47 with a slight West wind, few clouds, and just after the halfway point it was light enough to ditch the headlamp. And I think I took it easy enough today that tomorrow's attempt at 22 miles should be successful. I am having doubts about completing the training for this 50 miler. It is brutal and I've already gone to bed early a couple nights this week. Not sure I can handle 11 more weeks of this.

AP: 8:40

"22" miles this morning in my new Cascadia 10s. They are like heaven. Love new shoes! Especially heavily cushioned ones. I knew it would be windy today but the bad doesn't hit till afternoon. Once I got 2 miles from home I ran into the nasty SW headwind again like a couple Fridays ago. Ugh. Nearly turned around at 3 miles but decided to power through another mile to get to a different route. Worked perfectly and had the wind at my back the next 5 miles to the valley floor, then no appreciable wind until the 19th mile. 

AP: 9:28