Week in Review

96 miles
4 doubles
1 giant check
5 AFDs

Though I wouldn't call this a "down" week, it did end up falling a bit short of my typical weekly mileage due to several factors, mainly work- and head cold-related. Nevertheless, it included many highlights, such as my Saturday morning giant check and a weekend spent in Providence with friends. Today was the CVS 5k, which also doubles as the US 5k Championships, which gave us an opportunity to cheer on Karhu athlete Joe Moore and make ourselves at home as per usual with Kim and Pat. This time around her parents were also visiting from New Zealand, so it was a full and quite jovial house. After watching Molly defend her title and Joe crack the top 10 on Sunday morning, we all headed out to the bike path for Kim and Amy's tempo workout. I jogged easy with Jon and Joe (who was completing his approximately seventh run of the day, including the race) and then tried to conceal my mixture of awe and despair as Jordan paced Kim and Amy to a 5-mile tempo at a clip faster than my one-mile PR. Talk about a totally different level...

Speaking of races, now is a good time to mention I've officially decided to "only" run the half at Hartford in a few weeks. While my fitness is coming around, I'm almost certainly not in shape to win the full marathon and definitely not primed to attain the coveted sub-2:37 A-standard, so frankly what's the point. Instead I'll continue to plug away, race my little heart out in the half-marathon division of the New England's Finest program, and set my sights firmly on the Cal International Marathon in December. It will be hard over the upcoming weeks and months watching my speedy friends race to fast new PRs while I keep training quietly on the sidelines, but I trust the process and am confident it will all be worthwhile come December 8th.