WS Thoughts

It's finally here! Thursday morning in Squaw Valley already has the feel of Christmas morning. People are starting to roll in, the snow is melting fast, Pearl Izumi deliveries from UPS, and the pre-race splits and drop bag planning has begun.

My family and I arrived in Reno on Sunday for a much needed family vacation. With me being gone most of the year on a plane somewhere, it was finally nice to have my family at my side on a plane for once. We settled into the PI house and for the past several days have been doing the activities in and around Lake Tahoe. The weather in these parts have been absolutely spectacular, clear and hovering in the upper 80s. I could see myself as a Tahoe City resident very easily. Andy Jones-Wilkins and his family joined us on Tuesday and it has been quite a treat hanging out with them at the house. While I've been tapping into the immense WS knowledge, Nicole and Shelly have been sharing ultra crew war stories, and the boys have been enjoying their time with the JW boys.

On the running side of things, I have been feeling amazing! To give you an example, I did mile repeats on Tuesday in 5:54, 5:59, 6:02, 5:53 and did not feel stressed, just cruising. These were supposed to be done in ~6:20 but just couldn't hold back. I hate to even say how good I feel because I don't want to jinx it but I can't deny how refreshed my body and mind feel. For the first time all year I've taken a proper 3 week taper: 65, 45, and probably 22 myles this week. Going through a taper is always such a mind game; one day feeling like you have never ran with sludge in the legs to the next day feeling like you can run sub 4 minute mile repeats while having a conversation. I'm sure the body doesn't know what to think and only responds to what it's been used to; 80+ myles and 12 hours of running a week. To be quite honest, I think I have finally broken through the taper twitches and at the same time don't have any real aches when first rising in the morning.

Blog wise it's been fun looking at all the predictions and I don't think it comes as any surprise the top 5 are: Roes, Killian, Clark, Koerner, and Mackey. There are so many talented runners from all over the world so it will be interesting to see how things play out in the end. That's why we run the race. Who will have the best day? Personally I hope to not get caught up in the hype, run my race, and enjoy the experience. Good luck to all, and in particular, my PI teammates Nick Clark and Timothy Olson.

Tonight Pearl Izumi will be hosting a low key BarBQ at 6 PM at the PI house. If you are in town, stop by and say hello. Nick Clark will be signing autographs...