Govember

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Seven days to race day! Gulp.

As I type this, it is 0.4C on top of Mt. Wellington with a wind chill of -4.4C and a light dusting of snow... it could be coooold up there on race day, so bring your booties.

This morning was my last chance for a decent long run before D-Day (Death-in-the-mountains Day) so I hit the modified treadie for another hill session.

The result? A pleasing 18.3km at 6.7% in a modest, but "comfortable" 2h22m. I say comfortable, only in the sense that I finished the run pretty confident I had the other 3km in me that I'll need on the mountain to finish the race. But we'll see - that mountain has a habit of taking one's confidence and giving you a giant wedgie with it. Take nothing for granted in P2P is the best advice I can give. The run itself was tough, but the 10:1 run/walk strategy made it very manageable, so it's definitely a strategy that's working. Even with the walk breaks, this run was about PB pace, so Galloway may well be right when he asserts that run/walk will give you faster race times. But, as I say, we shall see.

But whichever way I look at it, 18km of continuous hill climb is a tons better position than I was in even a week ago, so that's got to be good.

OK hold tight, it's race week!

Track du jour: Journey's kitsch but appropriate "Don't Stop Believing" nearly got the gong this time, but in the end there was only one choice really: