In which I consider the week's running

1.
Monday, 4:15pm
I ran the Easy Six on Monday with the team, and coming off Saturday's eight, which felt great, my legs felt a little sluggish in the first mile or so, but then things became easy. Several of our XC runners were at JV soccer try-outs, so it was a smallish group, and many of the ones who were present were suffering a little from Halloween the night before: lousy food and not enough rest.

2.
Tuesday, 4:30pm
We had a team meeting to talk about this weekend's District Meet. And then, just as we started the warm-up for the 200-meter repeats they were scheduled to run, the bottom fell out of the sky. We were drenched, and everybody left.

3.
Tuesday, 5:15pm
I checked the radar after everybody left the track and saw that the rain wasn't nearly as heavy over in Orange County, so I headed over there and ran six in light rain. Not a particularly great run, since my shoes were heavy from the rain, but the second half felt a lot better than the first.

4.
Wednesday, 4:15pm
A very uneventful three easy miles on the track while the team was running the 200-meter repeats planned for Tuesday.

5.
Wednesday, 6:00 pm
Ran from the house, an easy four miles, but my legs were starting to feel that wear of three days in a row, especially since I ran a couple of strides with the team earlier in the afternoon. I do think it's worth mentioning a few things from this run. First, I saw a woman who looked possessed. Seriously, she made me afraid, stumbling on the trail, water bottle and white towel in hand, a wild look in her dark-ringed eyes. Second, I saw our Headmaster. And third, as I was headed home, just running easy on the mostly downhill return toward the neighborhood, a pair of sand hill cranes circled over the pasture by the trail, calling to each other.

6.
Thursday, 4:15pm
Easy two and a quarter on the short Montverde loop with the team. A very, very easy day for them before the District Meet on Saturday.

7.
Thursday, 6:00pm
I dropped Hillary off at dance--she's sick, but she went to watch so she doesn't get too far behind--and then went down to Lake Minneola and ran four along the lake, up through Minneola, almost to the trail head and then back. From the way my legs were feeling, it was pretty clearly Thursday, but I still managed to run 9:02, even with a pretty steady headwind all the way back. Pretty much all I could think about for the last mile was huevos rancheros.

8.
Saturday, 1:45pm
The XC team ran in the District Meet at the Villages in the morning. We'll only be advancing one runner to the Region Meet next weekend, but I couldn't really be much happier with how they've worked and progressed and run this season. After the race, we stopped by Crisper's, and I drank coffee while they ate, and everybody talked and generally had a nice time. After taking them back to school, I went down to Killarney Station and ran nine out to downtown Winter Garden and back. Things felt good, averaging an 8:30 pace with fairly even splits. The OUC Half is in roughly a month, so I'm feeling like I'll be able to improve a good deal from how I did there in 2008. I'd like to take at least five minutes off, but right now, I'm feeling like it'll be possible to take off ten, or maybe even more.

Total miles this week: 34.6