AM - 19.5 miles. Today was my big 26.2K Tempo Run (16.3 miles)... the metric marathon. Obviously this is taken right from the Hanson's playbook. I did this out at the airport-saltair frontage road. It was kinda windy (~10-12mph from E/SE), so a cross/tail wind when heading west, and a pretty tough headwind when heading back west. It definitely took a lot more effort (and focus) running into the wind, and it also prevented me from turning this into a 26.2K time trial, which is actually a good thing. The goal for this workout was a consistent MP effort on legs that are nowhere near tapered yet. I ran 1:26:59 (5:20/mile average) for the tempo. Splits were: 5:18, 5:19, 5:21, 5:16, 5:20, 5:20, 5:26, 5:27, 5:26, 5:25, 5:17, 5:17, 5:24, 5:24, 5:17, 5:16, 1:26. The ones in italics were into the headwind. Warmed up 1.5, cooled down 1.7. This is the longest tempo run I've ever done... physically it wasn't that bad- it was more of a mental challenge to stay focused when running solo for that long. From the 15K until today, this is probably the best two week stretch of running I've ever done. That alone doesn't really mean anything, but put into the overall context of my training this winter, and the fact that I'm starting to feel my best right now despite the workload (its not breaking me down, and I'm finishing every workout feeling like I could do more), my confidence is very high going into these last couple weeks before Boston. Last night I got the idea to make a mountain dew (de-carbonated) based electrolyte drink (I added in Hammer electrolyte tablets). I tired it out today, and it was a delicious explosion of sugar/caffeine/salt. However on my cooldown I threw up in my mouth a little bit, but I think it was more due to the fact that I got a whiff of dead animals (or whatever terrible smelling things they keep near the salt lake). I'll have to think about this more... I'm not even sure what my fluids situation is for Boston at this point (how many bottles, etc). If I can make a concoction w/ Mtn Dew, it has enough sugar that I wouldn't have to worry about taking any gels (the ideal sitaution for me). But that's only if I can get a bottle every 5K or so. Hopefully their coordinator will get back to me this week with more details. I'm hoping to use these wash bottles in Boston. They work pretty well...
 This is how I stashed bottles out on the course. Chicken wire looped onto the bottle - easy to grab on the run. I duct taped them to the ground so they wouldn't blow away in the wind. I did this same method at UVM last year. It works great if you have hand-eye coordination. At UVM I missed 3 of my 6 bottles! Today I only missed 1 out of 4 and that was only because the wind blew it over.
 PM - 4 miles easy around the block. I wonder what my neighbors (who only see me running on weekends in the afternoon) think of me? They've probably never seen me move faster than 8 minute pace :-)
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