Just one more day...

I just need to do one more thing I asked of myself 6 months ago, and that's to go long again tomorrow for my final hard weekend of training for Bandera. I can't tell you how "unsad" I am that taper is about to begin! My legs are TIRED, and my brain is RUN-TIRED.

I can't begin to thank Muz enough for consistently stepping up to run with me on my long runs to keep me company. Sure, he's also doing the 100k, but he didn't need to join me. Bruce, Dan and Mer deserve huge props too, but Muz has been joining me for the longer sessions and I couldn't have done them the way I have without him. It's just so much easier to spend 5 or 6 hours with someone else out there than on your own, even if at times we spend several miles without saying a word to each other.

This morning I took off at 5am for "a 6 hour" or "a 30 mile run" (which ever was reached first).

It was a little chilly but not too bad, maybe high 30's.

I ran for an hour and 15 towards Barton Springs and ran into Muz who started down there as he "only" wanted 5 hours worth! Felt like shit for the first couple of hours. Then again, I've realized i hate the first 2 horus of any trail run, as I just don't get into a groove until about then.

Returned back up to the Hill of Love after an 11 mile round trip, then reloaded on food and dropped headlamps and head beanie, then took off for a fun 13 mile loop. We returned to my car to yet again reload and dump gloves and took off for another different set of trails for 5 miles. A little disappointed that his GPS claimed 29 miles for me as we walked to my car, we decided to drop all gear and go run an out and back on the roads for the last painful mile to make it to 30.

Final run time for me was about 5 hours 35 minutes or so. I'm not exactly sure, but I do know I started at 5:08am and got to my car at 10:52, and I'm being extremely conservative on downtime during our 2 reload stops and our several pee and refuel breaks during the run.

I'm happy with this run. My legs were pretty much dead by the end, but overall I felt good and strong which is quite a different than how crappy I've felt towards the end of the last 4 weekend runs. Then again, I went back and looked at the 23 weekends since July when I started this training in earnest, and I haven't really been taking it easy.

Won't bore you any longer with this. Bye bye.

Happy running.

One last thing... The creek water is super cold these days. To the point where both Muz and I felt like our toes were going to fall off during the 6 crossings.