Week Ending Dec 23

Mon - Off

Tues - 5.5 miles (500') easy. Blean Woods. Green and Red loops.

Weds - AM: 4.5 mile easy. Blean Woods. Green loop with Dana.
PM: 5.5 miles (500') easy. 3 x university loop at an up-tempo effort.

Thurs - 5 miles easy with Dana. Tour of Canterbury, including a stop at the cathedral.

Fri - 9.5 miles (900') easy. Black outer loop of Blean Woods.

Sat - 8.5 miles (500') w/ 5k race (17:55, 1st). Ran 5 miles out to Whitstable to do the Parkrun event on the seafront. I went through the first kilo on the promenade very comfortably in 3:30 and then pretty much kept the effort there after I realized there would be nobody to race. The middle kilo to kilo and a half was totally flooded out and super sloppy, so I went through very cautiously before slotting back into my prior effort level on the boulevard return.

The Parkrun 5k races, of which there are hundreds taking place around the UK every Saturday morning, are completely free and designed exclusively to get people up off their asses and out running. Currently there is only one US-based event (Livonia, MI), but anyone can get one up and running - if, of course, they have the time and desire to commit to it.  Not a position I am in right now unfortunately.

Sun - 5.5 miles easy. Long uni loop via Giles Lane - Tyler Hill - Crab and Winkle. Major standing water in places on the C&W bridle path which was kinda troublesome in the dark.

Total: 45 miles (2,400')

Just an easy week here in Canterbury, where the ground is totally saturated and the heavens appear to be permanently open. Major flooding in the southwest of the country, so we actually don't have things too bad. Nonetheless, conditions are essentially the polar opposite of drought-stricken Colorado where I can't remember the last time I had to alter my stride to accommodate the mud.

Fun to get out and turn the legs over on Saturday at the Parkrun. I'll be back out there tomorrow morning for the bonus Xmas day rendition, followed by one of my favorite races of all time - the Boxing Day Run - on the 26th (aka Boxing Day). Then another Parkrun on Saturday with a follow-up bonus edition on New Years Day. So just the four races while I'm here then.

Oh, and training for the 2013 season officially kicked off today. For those counting at home, we're 27 weeks out from Western States, 30 weeks out from Vermont, 34 weeks out from PB'ville and 37 weeks out from Wasatch. Built a training chart and everything yesterday: yeah, it's serious this time. The base building concludes with the Salida Marathon in early March ... and then I start getting serious.