One of the Best Things About My Job....

is that I get to eat and run at all kinds of different places. Unfortunately most of the time, time of day, weather, or neighborhood will send me to the hotel fitness center to get in my run on the treadmill. However, this trip I had a perfect storm of overnights. The first night was in Portland, ME and I ran along the bay and over the Casco Bay bridge. The second night was in Key West, FL and I ran along the shore. The temperature was in the mid 80s and the humidity was about 120% (only a slight exaggeration) so even though I had planned on running 90 minutes, I only managed 60. This morning I was in Rock Island, IL and ran along the mighty Mississippi. Weather conditions were perfect and I was able to get in my 90 minutes. I kicked it the last mile and ran it in 9:06. That's about as fast as I've run a mile in 20 years! Here are some pictures I took during my runs.

View from the Casco Bay bridge in Portland

Old downtown Portland on the way to the bay

Beautiful Key West

One of the many bridges between Illinois and Iowa

Training for the last two weeks has been a kind of combination recovery/taper. I ran the 50k two weeks ago, and now I'm planning on doing at least part of an 8 hour run. I've run an average of 32 miles/week and although I will show up at the 8 hour run, I'm going to play it by ear. Looking at past results, about half a dozen runners use it as a catered training run, running 10, 15, 20, or 26.2 miles. The other half dozen go for the full 8 hours. Right now I'm planning on a two hour training run, but I'll be using the run/walk pace I used on my first ultra. If I still feel good, I'll add another hour, then another hour, etc. If I reach 6 hours and still feel good, then I'll make myself do the 8. The race director is Scott Ludwig. I googled him and he has quite a list of accomplishments. He's run Western States, finished 6th at Badwater in 2003, and has an unbroken running streak of over 30 years. I'm looking forward to chatting with him and with other local ultra runners and getting some training advice.