Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

32F, 7:31 AP.  Nice long run in the morning before 8:30 church.  Only one mass time in our small town, so had to get out the door by 5am to make sure I made it back in time.  Kinda chilly....I need new gloves.

I ran comfortably the whole way with the usual negative split (1:24, 1:21), and eveything seemed fine.  One of these days I will do an ultra.  Sometimes I wonder if that is the way to go for me.  Having never run until the age of 30, I missed the window for developing any kind of speed, but at a more moderate pace it feels like I could run forever.

Anyway, that was the last long run before Tulsa.  I do love a nice Sunday morning run.  I'm still training in earnest, and will do what I can to PR.  I'll do the last MP workout Friday or Sunday this coming week.  That should be pretty telling as to how I should run the race.  My gut tells me to expect 3:05 - 3:08 but I guess you never know.

61F, 8:22 AP.  Short PM run today, I decided to get max sleep last night, which was awesome.  Taking it easy this week, then probably some MP work on Friday.  Usually, I actually look forward to those runs.  Usually....

41F, 7:57 AP.  The full moon was actually a big help today.  I could see the potholes right before I stepped in them, instead of not at all.  It is almost 8am by the time the sun rises now.  Ridiculous.

50F, NNW 10 mph.  7:46 AP.  Easy with some strides in the last couple miles.  The strides felt pretty good, I don't know why I don't do more of them.

50F.  Forgot the pace, 8:20's I think.  Kinda lethargic today, but still going for 10-12 @ MP tomorrow.  It's going to be tough, to say the least, but hopefully give me an idea of what I'll be able to do in a couple weeks.

57F, 7:06 AP.  Ok, not bad, not bad.  I am slowly but surely climbing out of this slump, and the timing is good.  I did 4 easy, then 10 @ MP, followed by a short cooldown.

The 10 MP miles were 6:46 AP.  Splits were 6:46, 6:39, 6:44, 6:47, 6:41, 6:40, 6:49, 6:57, 6:46, 6:49.

Did it feel like my true MP?  Nah, probably not.  A little too much fatigue in the last 2 or 3 miles.  But the fact that I could still execute the run shows improvement even from a week or two ago, so there is hope of returning to normal by the race, which means it's not quite time to throw in the towel on sub-3.

The course I ended up running was neutral, actually about 15' net uphill.  Normally I like a slightly aided course for this kind of run but the wind direction meant it could not be set up that way today.  Plus the darkness, and not entirely cool weather, could factor into making it tougher today.  So there are a lot of bright spots.

58F, NNE 18 mph.  8:18 AP.