Sept. 8-14

Duel in the Sun: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmzljrUrwKE

Is it already Wednesday? I have been buried in work the past two days.

So buried I barely remember blowing up in the Parks Half Marathon on Sunday.

I knew from 2006 that this race was tough. I ran 1:17 during a training cycle for Chicago, where I ran 2:29.

The course starts with 2 fast miles on the road in Rockville. You veer onto Rock Creek Trail, and from there the course rolls up and down, making it very hard to find a rhythm. The last two miles are uphill on a trail that shoots you through a weird tunnel to the finish on a street in Bethesda.

The additional element this year, however, was about 90 percent humidity. a heat index close to 100 degrees. After a two-mile warmup I was dripping with sweat.

I went out conservatively but was never even able to settle into goal marathon pace. Through 11 miles I was at least sub-6 pace ... until the trail to Rockville.

1:20.06.

OK, so my training has been going well. Three weeks of 95 miles with a cutback last week. Now a month of 100. Hopefully I can just toss this out, and I want to look for another race the last week in September.

It gives me more respect for what the marathoners accomplished in Beijing. And so it makes sense to post a "Duel in the Sun" video. And it reminds me, as always, of that marathon in Accra. That was almost a year ago, and it's time to write about that.

M - 10
T - 10
W - 10 - UMD Track, 5 by 1000 with 400 jog, 3:06 Avg.
Th - 12
F - 12
S - 10
S - Parks Half - 17
Total - 81