December 15th, 2018 By Heatstroke

As YHC has decided that since he is fairly trained up after his first half marathon last week, that just continuing the mileage nonsense and just getting a full marathon out of the way instead of possibly starting all over again at a later date makes sense.  It makes sense, but the stupid number of miles sometimes (many times) feel like they don’t.  Anyhoo, 17 miles today and the good Lord felt some additional mental training might be in order as well with rain in the forecast.  Four, count em’ four, 45 minute cruises.  YHC has brought his headphones in case of solo running…

0530. No solo running as @skipper has run from his casa to ensure YHC leaves his headphones in the car.  It is a fairly miserable run with moderate rain falling for nearly the entire 4+ miles up to Ridge road and looping back down.  Enormous puddles are impossible to avoid and soaked we are, from head to foot.  The 2nd F is solid though as we discuss the beating that Clemson is going to lay down on Notre Dame on 12/29, and we lift up the Irish in prayer.  We return to Tradition with a few minutes to spare.

0615.  We do a quick COT with our new arrivals @brutus_meca @man-down @trailmix and we are off down Prosperity to the neighborhood down behind TJs and back.  @gordo pulls into the lot after the beginning of our run.  @skipper who is starting this route, but peeling off towards home, stays back for @gordo and then @trailmix circles back as well at about a mile or so in.  @man-down is like Ricky Bobby with a ruck on and just want to go fast as he is fast shuffling the majority of the time…really strong work…but that’s not how you’re supposed to do it:)  Might have to load him down with more weight to slow him down #50.  He was even mixing in squats and bear crawls along the way #trainingforselection.  We all eventually meet up half way through and return to Tradition.  Very dry run, no rain and minimal puddles.  @filibuster shows up out of nowhere as he was out there as well and we must have just missed him.

0700.  Everybody splits except @filibuster @brutus_meca and YHC and we take back off up Prosperity along the same route as 0530.  The puddles are still there…and the feet get soaked.  @brutus_meca heads for home about a mile in.  The rain conveniently returns as YHC had determined before this leg that he didn’t need his hat anymore…  Thanks to @filibuster for doling out a ton of advice on preparing for a marathon, YHC needed to write that stuff down.  We return to Tradition once again.  

0745. @filibuster and YHC take off down Prosperity again and @filibuster heads back after getting to Mallard Creek after he knows he is going to hit 9 miles.  YHC is on his own and slowly finishes off this final leg.  17.3 miles total.  Phew.

Moleskin: Appreciate y’all showing out this morning, I thought for sure that I would run one or more of those routes completely by myself, but alas, I ran none completely alone.  Thanks for the support out there and for the opportunity to lead.  I’ll be out of town the majority of next week (including next Saturday) so here’s me wishing all you Valley runners (and really everyone reading this that I don’t see regularly) a very Merry Christmas and holiday season.  

Heatstroke

The Valley Cruise

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