Sleep would be good

Drawback of summer, everyone else in the house is off. Wife, kids, cat, fish...all on vacation. While some of us (specifically me) need to get to bed early and up early, the rest prattle around and do their thing, some of them till 3 and 4 and in the morning.

I managed a couple of good months, keeping my weekly mileage in the 50s and getting out there every morning and every lunchtime, tossing in a few evenings during kids soccer practice for good measure. Some weeks hit 70 miles, some down in the 40's but I was consistent. This month's a bust so far. Was supposed to do hills this morning, couldn't open my eyes. Last night I was picking up eldest son from a friend's house near midnight and had to drive the other friends to their homes as well. When I got back, everyone else was snoozing.

Not that it's all bad. The down time is good after several months of up mileage (for me, anyway). Another complicating factor, I ripped the skin from the back of my right foot while on vacation and the only pair of shoes I can use are pretty old and beat up. This was last Friday and it's still not healed over, due to re-opening the wound every time I run. My good pair makes it unbearable to run.

I worked through lunch today so I think I'll cash out early and try to get something in this evening, maybe an 8 miler with hills would be good as I'm only getting the one run in today. I'm off the next 5 days with a couple of carry overs to make a good looooong weekend. It's been a month since I did a proper long run, every Sunday has had something going on, be it soccer tourneys or driving to the cottage and back.

Anyway, I'm on my next phase, if I can every get it properly in gear. For the next 6-7 weeks I'll be doing at least 3 good quality sessions a week and pop up the mileage back into the 200's a month. The volume is good but it can make you rusty for speed after a while and you need that quality period to make your legs turn over properly. With the volume, I can hold my speed. Problem is I don't have the speed right now and that's what comes next.

Target race is late October, same as I've done the last 3 years, the Toronto (now Goodlife Fitness) Marathon 5k on October 19th. My times here have been 20:03 (my 5k PR) in '05, 20:19 in '06 and a sucky 20:33 last year. As the Nightcrawler sits as my summer benchmark, this one is my fall staple.

Still a month of summer left. Weekend promises great weather.