Taper week 2 and the Scuffle

Monday - Off

Tuesday - Back Lake NH, 6 miles @8:46.  On vacation with my mother, brother and Alison up in Pittsburgh NH on a real nice little lake.  I hit a gentle 3 out and back along mostly road and a bit of jeep trail.  Hot, and hot and deer flies!

Wednesday - Back Lake, 7 @9:03.  Well the thought process was to warm up two miles do a 6x800 and cool down a bit.  I got some directions from a local store owner that I could just go through the woods to connect a couple of roads and make a loop around the lake.  Sounded easy enough so I headed out and sure enough found the woods.  Which kept going and going and going until finally I hit a road which brought me right back to where I started.  So I did it again but picked a different route and made it through.  Needless to say I only got a few successful 800's in for some "pep" work but I didn't really care as it's definitely not needed for Vt.  I did finally work my way around the lake for some fantastic views.

Thursday - Intended to hit the hills but it just didn't happen.

Friday - Off

Saturday - Bradbury East, 6.1 @9:09.  Headed out with a bunch of TM's to set the Scuffle course.  We split in groups of two and Ryan, Zak, Lenka and I worked the last few miles.  Then hit a semi-easy, albeit hot and soupy run.  Real tired and sluggish on the run, scary.

Sunday - Bradbury Scuffle, 6 @43:31.  Myself, Zak and Ian all went in to this race with the though of taking it easy before the VT100 just one week away.  I originally didn't want to sign up as I was afraid I'd put too much in to the race and burn myself.  But I entered anyway.  How do you stay away from such fun and knowing there's a whole series to work with.

Zak and I did a quick warm-up along the dirt trail and I remember telling him I was all done with the warm up after only a quarter mile or so.  Not a great sign.  Ian gave an amazing and as other people have put it very moving speech about Chris Douglas who the race is dedicated to and before we knew it we were off.

My intention was to start at the front and not give it too much throughout the race.  Basically that's what happened.  The hills were tougher than expected, but I held off going too fast on the downs and flats and instead worked the switchbacks to gain ground.  I put more effort in than I probably should have but didn't want to give up too much time for the rest of the series and it was just plain fun to race. 

The support crew was absolutely fabulous and it was a really great day and as usual really great to hang out with everyone.

Time:  3:55
Distance:  27