20k long run

Having a terrible sleep, a headache, and feeling slightly nauseated, I came close to delaying my morning long run to the evening. I was going to call Barrie M. and say, "sorry, can't make it". But I knew that delaying it would have me thinking about the run all day; and getting it done, no matter how badly I felt had some definite advantages. I could laze about all day and feel as if I accomplished one thing. I could feel lousy at home or on the roads. This time I chose the roads.

The run turned out not to be too bad, but I definitely wasn't feeling right and my pace was slow. We ran from Barrie's place and headed up Alberni St. and ran through the Valley and back home along the highway. I tacked on another couple k and tallied ~20K at probably 5:00/k pace, which, as I said was slow; but I was happy just to get the k's in and have the run done for the day.

I did have an afternoon nap and did feel better in the late afternoon, so I'm hoping I'll be good to go for the week's training ahead, which will be a bit harder than this past week.

In the evening we had Sarah's sister's family and her parents over for dinner. Sarah made an incredibly good cous cous salad and Claire whipped up a great chocolate upside down cake. Heaven.

~~~~~~~

"I haven't seen too many American distance men on the international scene willing to take risks. I saw some U.S. women in Barcelona willing to risk, more than men. The Kenyans risk. Steve Prefontaine risked. I risked--I went through the first half of the Tokyo race just a second off my best 5000 time."

Billy Mills, gold medal winner of the 10,000 at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics with a 46-second PR.

"Coming off the last turn, my thoughts changed from 'One more try, one more try, one more try...' to 'I can win! Ican win! Ican win!'"

Billy Mills