Monday, August 18

32 days and counting.........

Last week I was able to get back to my routine. It felt great to walk out under the cover of darkness into the chill of the morning. Reminds me of fall. To me, there's nothing like getting up early and hitting the pavement before the sun rises. For some reason it's in my blood. I look forward to every part of getting up at 4am to start the day. Call me crazy, I absolutely love it.

With knee healed up it was back to the grind, Monday off (OP), Tuesday - 6.5, Wednesday - 7.2, Thursday off (OP), Friday - 7.2, Saturday - 8, Sunday - 11. This gets me 39 for the week, not bad for a first week back. A decent base to start building on for the Columbus Marathon, October 19. C-bus is for all the marbles, it's where I hope to pump out a 3:10. The magic number for me to make the Boston qualifier.

Sunday I ventured back to the hills and mud of the Buckeye trail. Ever since the 50K I have been waiting to head back. The Buckeye was going to be the true test for the knee. 11 miles of ups and downs and it held up great. What a relief. Today is rest, so tomorrow starts a new week of training.

Prep for the hunt continues. Yesterday I put everything together in the pack and it came out at 42 lbs. Needless to say, a little heavy. The next step is cut some items and really scale it back. For this run I packed my "everything" list. Next, in hopes to lighten the load I'm packing my "necessity" list.

Over 11lbs of that 42 is food. In effort to save every ounce, I did a lot of research to find the best combination of energy/weight, or calories/ounce. Each item on the list (sample attached) made the cut because it contained the highest calorie per ounce ratio. It had to pack the good stuff and at the right weight to ride in the pack. I'm sure somewhere out there is a better list. If you know of one or have a thought I'd like to hear it.

So with Monday brings a new week and a set of new goals. There are miles to conquer and arrows to shoot. Elk camp is right around the corner. 32 days and counting to be exact........