http://www.strava.com/activities/147056541

Get to a clearing, look around…see that highest point. Run up it.

Having a very difficult time throttling back the intensity this week. I purposely brought my running shoes home from work today so that I can’t *accidentally* go running tomorrow.

I think this will be my last tempo run in this taper. Racing next Sunday. I was going to go easy today, but my Thursday schedule is such that I have a huge chunk of time just before and just after the lunch hour, and if I time it right, I can escape for a long-ish run. I first considered the Balch Creek run up to Pittock and through the Japanese Garden… then I found myself engrossed in a design that I was working on and couldn’t pull myself away – so I was late getting out the door… even then!!! I considered running up and over Council Crest to the Zoo and back through Washington Park. It was a full on crazy moment of perpetual optimism. My mom used to always say I had no concept of time (thank goodness!).

As I made my way up Council Crest today feeling rocksteady I still considered going up and over… I set up a data page on my watch so that I can see elapsed time, HR, pace and mileage in one view. Even as I popped out of the woods at the radio tower I *still* thought about just dropping down the other side, crossing 26 and picking up Wildwood at the Zoo even though I knew I would be 10 mins late getting back to the office.

It took quite a bit of restraint after circling the top to drop back into the woods and return the same way I came up. Super fun dropping down on twisty singletrack. I haven’t done that downhill in months and I would typically run that section around mile 15… not so fresh… today it was perfect.

Starting to do some visualization about the race – it’s two loops of the 25K course, with aid stations about every 5 miles, so I don’t think I need to carry a pack/hydration bladder  – maybe just one bottle and refill as needed at the AS. We’ll see, generally pretty relaxed about it – although with 7500 ft. of climbing, the second time up Hamilton Mtn is going to be *the suck*. Looking forward to it.

(this post is sponsored by the 80s … all of them.)