Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Catching up


Needless to say, things in my life have been a bit crazy over the past month. As such, while my running has not suffered, my blogging has. That said, for me, today is officially the first day of summer as I have successfully launched the graduating seniors on the road to college and all of our faculty meetings concluded yesterday. So, it's time for a deep breath and time to get ready to roll at Western States.

And, I thought I'd celebrate the beginning of summer with a nice three-hour run through Adam's Gulch this morning which was really nice. I got up over 8600 feet for the first time this spring and even had a mile or so of post-holing at the top to get me in the mood for the High Country. Based on the weather reports and the snow updates this could be the snowiest year since 2005 and may possibly mean the "Snow Route" could be used. I think that would be kind of fun as I have never done the snow route and it might be nice to mix it up. Of course, it also means my course record assault would be meaningless:) since there is absolutely no way to compare the Robinson Flat Course with the Snow Route. Anticipating the snow route, however, I have been running a bit more on the roads these last couple weeks (if I recall correctly from films and race reports the Snow Route has about eight miles of pavement on it) and I did a half-marathon on Saturday that I actually won and will do a few legs of the Sawtooth Relay this coming Saturday.

And, according to the poll I posted a couple weeks ago, the women's race at Western States will be a three-way battle between Nikki, Anita, and Devon with Meghan lurking around at 4th position. Should be a pretty good race on the distaff side.

Finally, a bit on my training this year: I have been pleased that I have been able to stay pretty consistent throughout the spring and I am in as good a shape as I have been in the past few years. Keeping the long runs under control and working hard at the track seems to have paid off with a nice feeling of cautious optimism. Just where I want to be with a couple weeks to go. I can't wait to get to Squaw!

7 comments:

Brett said...

I am predicting a DNS for Killian.

I am always wrong on my predictions, so this should be a sure way to make sure he shows up.

AJW said...

Brett, that is interesting. I was going to post a DNS poll as well but I was pretty sure all four would be there. You think this 700k trek across the Pyrenees might be enough for him?

Brett said...

Although there might be the appearance of logic in my DNS prediction, there actually was no true insight into anything that I can point to.

Nick said...

Andy - I don't know if it's the 'slimming' blue outfit you're wearing in that picture or if it's reality, but I'd say you're looking rather fit. Cautious optimism is good.

We're heading out in eight days. Look forward to seeing you out there.

AJW said...

Nick,

It's not the outfit. I photoshopped it to intimidate the competition:)

Hank Dart said...

And that was just the hair...

Speedgoat Karl said...

Killian is not so smart to run 700k right now...he'll have slow legs, he doesn't want that at a track meet!