(Down) Week in Review

61-62 miles
1 double
1 day off
3 days in ATL
4 AFDs

If ever there existed weather which necessitated a down week, we just endured it. Good grief. Last weekend's unusually mild temperatures turned out to be a sick and twisted joke, lulling us into a false sense of comfort and then BAM!--we're right back on the very threshold of hell. There was a moment on Wednesday morning just after Jordan and I had finished a sweltering, stifling "easy" run at the Chattahoochee River in Atlanta, a moment when we stood breathlessly panting next to my car while literally wringing out a deluge of sweat from our shorts, after which I looked Jordan dead in the eye and said: "Do not ever, under any circumstances, for any reason, ever let me complain about winter again. And if I do, remind me of this day."

So.

With that being said, the week's training wasn't entirely bad. Mostly that was due to the company of friends, in particular my former CRC teammate Stephanie "Pezz" Pezzullo. Pezz moved to Flagstaff about six months ago to pursue her goals as a steeplechase Olympic hopeful and has enjoyed a very promising year. Within the past month alone she qualified for the finals of the steeplechase at USATF Outdoor Nationals and finished as the one of the top Americans in both the Boilermaker 15k and the Peachtree 10k, her first road 10k ever. Lucky for me she's back in Charlotte for a visit, and it's been great to catch up with her on a few runs this weekend. If a fraction of her speed happens to rub off on me along the way I definitely won't complain.

Looking ahead to next week, there is--spoiler alert!--quite a bit of travel on my agenda. Tomorrow I'm headed to NYC for a Craft wear test run at New York Running Company and a few store visits, then Tuesday I'll train it to Boston for a few days up at Karhu and Craft HQ. I can only hope the weather will be slightly more tolerable in the Northeast or else my high mileage goal for the week might be overly ambitious. Either way I doubt that any workouts will happen until I return to Charlotte due to travel and work commitments, but I plan on bumping the miles up to "normal" again beginning tomorrow.

Speaking of Craft, I would be remiss if I didn't close out this entry by offering a shout-out to Andy and Frank Schleck and the entire Team Leopard Trek crew for an amazing performance at this year's Tour de France! I could not be more proud to have them representing our brand and showing everyone that Craft's performance apparel is truly the best in the world. Allez allez allez!