And so it goes and goes...

I have had a couple of great training days. The weekend turned out to be kind of a bust weather wise so I skipped running up in Duluth, I know bad trainee, but I did bike 14.9 very hard miles at Lebanon Hills Sunday when I got home, so that counts for something. This week however is starting out much better. I did a 8.25 mile trail run on Monday, which was great. The run was really good and I felt good afterward which is really what I am looking for more then anything. On my GPS thing there is a virtual race partner so I set my GPS for 8 miles with a pace of 13 minute miles. It is a really cool feature because the virtual trainer will help to keep you on pace, it tells you how far ahead or behind you are. I ended up beating him by a good distance so I was very pleased. I averaged 11:23 minute miles for the entire run. My goal for my 25k is 12-15 minute miles, that should keep me from being last and help me finish with a pretty good time. My race is still 45 days away, so I still have a lot of time to prepare but I am just really feeling out how I feel after my longer runs. Trail running is a lot harder then running on pavement. I ran that 10 miles at Lake Nokomis and felt a million times better then I did after my 8.25 mile trail run. I think more then anything it is the hills, so many, so many different sizes, the constant up and down, the un-level footing, sounds like fun doesn’t it? So far I am really enjoying it. I like trail running better then running on pavement, seems more challenging and there is always something cool to look at.

Last night Tuesday, I did a quick lap over at Lebanon on my Surly 1x1, I haven’t ridden my single speeds very much this year since I bought my Yeti so it was fun to get back on that bike. It is a great bike. Check it out here: http://www.surlybikes.com/1X1.html My Surly is very fast and handles the tight twisty single track very well. It also plows over the obstacles almost as good as my 29’er… I did say almost. While I was riding Melissa did a trail run and then we met in the parking lot and had a sandwich. Tuesday night is trail work night at Lebanon. So we stayed and worked on the trail. Melissa and I both belong to MORC: http://www.morcmtb.org I / we volunteer as often as we can to help build and maintain the mountain bike trails around the Twin Cities. It is a great organization and we have a lot of fun doing it. We have both met a lot of great people and made some good friends. Make sure to check out the website if you get a chance.

Tonight is my rest day; Melissa and I are headed to the Twins game tonight so that gives me a great excuse to rest my very tired legs. Tomorrow I am planning a short 4 mile run and then I am going to try to run 10-12 miles on the trail sometime this weekend. Also lots of biking this weekend.

More later.