September...

Well, on September first I ran the Nike 10k. Speed was decent and just about back to the land of the living -38.48. That put me in a good setup going into Valmiera on the 14th. I did one final tune up 2 mile xc run which I won 8 days before the marathon. It was actually more of a STEEPLE than and xc run since it had pissed rain all week and the course was underwater in spots.

                                                         A little dirt won't hurt :-)

So this brings us to Valmiera- I'm calling epic fail here on this one. I reallyneed NEED to FLY up to Riga to spare my legs and just take the train back, but yeah, I can never get deals to Riga under 300 euros or so, so it's not happening. I managed to sleep on my side on the train such that I bruised my left inner thigh above the knee- about a grapefruit sized bruise mind you. I am too boney to sleep on anything too hard and yeah usually it's my hip bone that grinds into the bunk but that always works itself out in a day or so before the race. This time I f#cked up my leg. My lower back was sore too but that was ok by Saturday-the day before. I could still feel the sroeness from that bruise on my shakeout run Saturday too. It hurt to touch it and massage wasn't helping much. I was going to have to run this marathon with an aching leg. SUCKTASTIC!  I wanted to try going out a little slower this yr than last yr to pack a better reserve in the second half. Well the problem was that I never was able to really pick it up after that. That damn thigh was sore as sh!t from the bruising. The field was stacked this year but, I figured I could at least get the 4th lady in the late kms- nope just sort of stuck not faster not slower just stuck. I ended up 5th time was worse than last year and, yeah I need to get a better line of work so I can afford to FLY next time and spare the legs.

Frustrating is not even the word. Sat out the 50k because I twisted the sh!t out of my ankle and then sucked at the marathon that was supposed to be on fresh legs this yr. By all indications before I bruised my leg on the train bunk, I was more than ready to run a solid race. If my barometer races had gone badly, I would have likely withdrawn from Valmiera and not gone, but everything was a go and I hadn't lost fitness in the 10 day time out a month prior. 

Six days later, I ran the Znamensky Memorial 6k in Chulkovo just south of Moscow. After having taken an easy week, my legs had more spunk in them than I thought. The masters cutoff here is at 36 and I just registered in my division and ran in the masters race. After about 3km I had passed most of the boys and was just chuking along in the mid 3.50s /km even steven in the POURING COLD RAIN.+5C and PISSING! I had no one to really chase down and was on my own just getting in a good workout. Had I known the main field was not as stacked as usual, I should have risked it and run with the young bucks and likely would have made top6 where they got better prize $. Who would have guessed? I got my ass kicked here in 09 when I was still in the young buck's division. So a masters win ti was.Ah well. No photos from the awards I was too wet and cold to fish out my camera:) Nevertheless, this race has always had good organization and I missed it in recent yrs as I was either in Valmiera or at 100k WC in the Netherlands at this time. 

WET!

cool medals though

On the 29th- I ran the 10 again in Gzhel. Just  missed cutting under 40 -last yr I made it under post Valmiera. BUT, last yr I was more motivated knowing I had to bust my ass for top 3. This yr I knew I wasn't going to make top 3 and just switched into 4min/km tempo run mode. 

I need to decide to do or no to do Chicago Marathon next week. Honestly, last year I believe I won the 50 and set the CR because instead of wasting my legs on a marathon I get nothing from, I ran a 3 hr long run that day instead. Sure, I can sandbag Chicago as a long run but it's pretty damn embarrassing to end up in the results with a snail slow time just 'cause. I think it's better to train on your own than to do that kind of thing. I'm eyeing possibly doing a half in Libertyville IL as a damn good workout instead .I need to really think. There are only 20 days between the marathon and the 50k and that's just not enough if I want to go eyeballs out in the 50. 6-8 weeks has always been ideal spacing for long races for me not 3. Plus running the marathon will kill my speed for those 5ks and 10ks I do as picker uppers before the 50k. Need to really think this through. In  2011 I did the marathon AND 50k and my 50k sucked. I would rather do smthg well or not do it at all.