The wrath of the Decker winds

First off - I can hear the wind howling outside my window now.  I do not want to hear the wind howling next Saturday night.  I hope the wind is not quite as brisk for the Decker race.

I blew off the long run on Sat AM since I did not feel great when I got up at 4:30 AM.  Went back to bed and slept until 10:30.  It was kind of a nasty grey day - the kind I hate and that did not improve my mood.  Did some errands and just kind of wasted the day away.  Rode Riley and he was fantastic.  You know things aren't looking good in my running life when I don't have too many good things to say about the running but the riding is good.  Made a really good veggie pizza and salad for dinner, watch a James Bond movie and went to bed at 9:45.  Took a Melatonin and Sleepy time tea to make sure I slept.

The goofy dog woke me up at 8am - obviously about to wet the dog bed so I got up and let her out to pee...it was chilly and windy but sunny - good day for running.  Had some water and a bagel, got my water bottle, ipod, arm warmers and gloves and set off.  At 973 I decided to run the direction of the race.  That proved to be a VERY wise decision.

I like, no love, the Decker Loop they use for the race.  Sundays are a good day to run it because there is less traffic.  If you don't like traffic or are intimidated by it you won't like the loop when you don't have the road to your self.  I find the drivers very courteous compared to people that live in Austin.   I braved the hills on 973, which after you run them a few times don't seem all that bad and when I turned onto Loyola (or whatever it's called east of decker lane) the wind hit me full force.  I just sucked it up and made a mental noted that the start of the race could be a bit windy and the finish would be brutal.  When I got to Decker lane, I stopped for a quick potty break and water refill.  Note - they have clean bathrooms at the gas station on the corner.

I turned onto Decker lane going north and realized the wind seemed to be blowing from the west.  I had assumed that I would be pushing into a head wind the whole way to Lindell.  It wasn't bad at all.  At Lindell, I was able to pick up the pace a little thanks to the tailwind, and that stayed with me the whole way home.  The little rollers on Lindell, Blue Bluff and Bloor aren't bad at all and the one fairly steep one on Blue Bluff is short.  It was helpful running the race course because it puts it into perspective.  I pushed the last couple of miles home and ended up at 16 miles.

Next week my A goal is 1:37 - that is a stretch given the nature of the course and my best effort at 3M is 1:35.  My B goal is 1:40.  My C goal is doing a water stop!!!

After this kind of sketchy week, I know I need a fairly easy run on Thurs, an off day on Friday and a easy shake out 4-5 miler on Sat.  Sunday will include a 2-3 mile warm up well over dressed to get my legs good and warm.