Kolja's next chapter

[kolja]

As far as the Seattle half - it's June 23. My buddy and his girlfriend (she has a place in West Seattle) will be in California; I had rather hoped to be able to crash with them since it's a 2 hour drive and gas prices here in Puget Sound are giving the prices I saw in Hawaii a run for the money - no pun intended - and I drive a 16 year old truck! But I found a good deal from hotels.com on a room down near the airport - only $65 plus tax. So I can roll down there Friday evening, pick up my packet, get a good night's sleep, and get to the race next morning without an unreasonably early morning.

My first time was 2:13:14, so I'd like to get in the neighborhood of 2:05ish. I think that would be a respectable improvement. I haven't done any speedwork, but since the weather's been nicer than it was when I was getting ready for April, I've been outside more - and it's REALLY hilly where I live. I felt I hadn't prepared myself very well for the hills on my first one, so I'm glad I've had the opportunity to run some lately.

Browsing around on the internet,I realize I'm not too familiar with the shorthand a lot of the training plans use for speedwork, so I'll need to do some academic homework before implementing them to make sure I understand what they're actually telling me to do!! A program I saw on Runners World's site made me feel like I was back in the calculus course the navy made take in college... of note, I was an international relations major