Training is over -- bring on Cow Harbor!

Yesterday's run (Central Park): 3.2 miles at 11:36
Today's run (street): 2.5 miles at 8:57

Yesterday I headed to Central Park with JQ for a refreshing run around the lower and upper loops below the reservoir. The plan was to take it slow and we did. It was a nice change to my normal CP runs where I start fast and hit the hills aggressively. JQ runs intermittently and is looking to increase his frequency. He's no newbie, despite this being more work for him than for me he had no trouble conversing throughout our 3+ mile excursion. Coming at the end of some of the hardest training that I've done prior to a race, yesterday felt somewhat like play. Great conversation and midday exercise without too much sweat made for a pleasant afternoon in the office.

This morning I returned to the street for my last run prior to Saturday's race. I wore the Kinvaras that I'm favoring right now and sped along the streets of the neighborhood at a brisk pace (for 4 AM). If I had any real hills in the neighborhood I'd have attacked them hard so I targeted roads with inclines as much as possible. I'm fairly tuned for the race at this point but, in retrospect, I may have benefited by running the race course more than once in practice. I'm not sure another practice would have made a big difference except to gain confidence by summitting the James Street hill more than once. I don't know how I'll do on the 25th but, no matter what, I've done my best to prepare for what's to come.