September 6

AM: 10 miles easy


PM: 5 miles easy

Recovery run with Liam starting in the dark in the morning before my first day of the new quarter at school. Relaxed ATT shake-out in the evening.

September 5 (97 miles/week)

AM: 22 miles easy/moderate

The weather in North Carolina this weekend was still unreal given what we've been used to. Consequently, this was my best long run since California. I went from my place to East and West Campus, through Duke Forest, and added a loop on the WaDuke trail on the way home. I felt fantastic. This weekend gave me a lot of confidence in my fitness, with added bonus of a long ride yesterday.

I also had a great week overall in that I hit two solid workouts and seemed to have overcome a cold while only sacrificing a little bit of volume. While I generally stay injury free, sickness is sometimes by achilles heel. I dodged a bullet there.

September 4

AM: 1-lap (1.67 miles) @ half-marathon pace, 4:00 jog, 3-laps @ marathon pace, 4:00 jog, 1-lap @ half-marathon pace, 13 miles


PM: 41 miles bike


With my cold subsiding and the weather turned cooler and less humid, I took advantage of it all and tried to hit a workout on the 1.67-mile rolling East Campus dirt trail. The results pleased me. It felt like I had a ton left in the tank afterward, yet I knew I was running at a decent clip. The target times were 9:00 for the first and last lap, and 9:20 for the middle laps. Splits: 8:51, 9:17, 9:21, 9:16.

In the afternoon, Valerie and I went for a long (for us) ride with friends Lauren and Dave, which included a stop at Maple View Farms. Woot! I hadn't been on the bike since May, and with the triathlon next weekend, I need to start "training."

September 3

PM: 5 miles very easy

I felt like I'd been hit by a train all day, staying inside nursing a cold while doing schoolwork. I'd rather kick this thing than try to force myself to hit a number at the end of the week.

September 2

AM: 15 miles easy


PM: 4 miles easy

Felt OK on the ATT with Liam in the morning, but felt downright awful during my shake-out run in the evening. Battling a nasty cold, but fortunately it doesn't appear to be more than that.

September 1

AM: 5 x gate-to-gate (+1800m) with 2:30 jog recovery, 11 miles

I met the BCTC guys in the morning, feeling more or less awful. Hit with a cold, I was downright grumpy for our 6:00 AM meeting time and 10k-pace effort workout.

We ran repeats on a gently rolling fire road, made challenging with freshly laid large gravel. This hurt our feet in some sections while definitely slowing us on the uneven surface. This was, however, a good chance for us to work together. Liam would gap me on the gravel sections when they threw me out of rhythm, and then I'd catch back up and push the pace on the more level sections.

I ran most of the reps with Liam, with Ben chomping right at our heels. It's hard to gauge the time from the splits and the undetermined distance, but the effort was surely there. The odd-numbered efforts were the more challenging direction.

Splits: 5:59, 5:51, 5:57, 5:58, 5:55

I bagged my afternoon run because I still felt run down from the cold, popping some 'Fed and collapsing on the couch. Instead, my afternoon looked like this: 2-hour nap warmup, 15-minute walk with Wilson, 1-hour nap cooldown. I'd rather feel healthy than see a pretty number at the end of this week.

August 31

AM: 12 miles easy


PM: 4 miles easy

Relaxed ATT run with Liam in the morning, and then with Valerie in the evening before catching a Bulls' game.