Into Week 3

Running in different climates this week, that's for sure.  My run in Mesa, Arizona was very memorable indeed.  Especially when compared to my run in Bellingham on Sunday.  13 miles with 8 miles at marathon pace.  Since we planned on celebrating Christmas around noon when Erin arrived, I got up and out in the morning.  Pretty weird running at 8am on Christmas Day with hardly anybody out.
Of course the weather was wacky all day.  I managed to avoid the rain but the wind was pretty crazy gusting to around 30 or 40 mph.  It's pretty hard to hold a consistent pace when battling a breeze like that.  If it's like that on race day all bets are off.  It was a nice run though and it only sprinkled a little bit around mile 11 or so and then stopped.
On Monday it was off to Denver (Castle Rock, Colorado to be exact) to see Diane's family.  Yesterday's 10 mile run was interesting on several accounts. Although it warmed up as the sun rose, it was pretty chilly when i started. They've had snow here and I ran 1 mile on the trail before giving up and heading back to the pavement.  Running at 6,300 feet elevation has its challenges as well although today's 5 miler felt much, much better so maybe I'm becoming acclimated.  We'll see how tomorrows run unfolds.  It's 8 miles with 4 of them at 15k pace.  7:30 is what i'm shooting for.  And then we'll see how the elevation training pays off on Sunday when I run a 14 miler back at sea level.
UPDATE
This morning's run in Ft. Collins was a good one but the elevation kicked my behind. Trying to run those 4 miles at 7:30 pace was pretty futile. My heart rate was in the 85% to 92% range the whole time so I was working hard, but my pace was not where I wanted it to be. Tomorrow a 4 mile recovery run and Saturday is a rest and travel day and then on into a new year and new adventures.

So, running in the park with no shoes and no shirt on dry grass, running along the harbor trying not to get blown over and hoping to avoid the rain, and running through the snow and trying not to slip on the ice at 6,300 feet elevation all in the space of a week. All in a week's work they say and it surely makes life intersting indeed.