I will soon...

...be boarding the plane that will take me to Geneva.  I signed up to run in Berlin more than 5 months ago with one idea: running the fastest marathon of my life.  And here I am, in late July, working hard to achieve my goal.  This has been an incredibly difficult training bloc. First, the weather in New Orleans is not friendly at all during the summer.  I am running in very hot and humid conditions day in and day out. Then, my right knee has given me some problems since I started to increase my weekly mileage (3-4 weeks ago).  But those problems have not stopped me from going out to do my runs.  The hot and humid conditions can only make me stronger as long as I complete the workouts with the required intensity.  It's not about how fast I can run my speed workouts, tempos, or long runs, it's about having the motivation to put together workouts with intensity.  My times do not reflect how fast I really am.  I am slower than normal, but I am not worried about it.  The thinner the air, the faster I will go... and the air in Berlin will be thin... so watch out!  My knee is getting better, I have done two runs without pain this week.  I found out that my lower right train was lacking balance, and I am working to correct this problem.  I also noticed that my stride was not as efficient as it usually is, so I am trying to get a more efficient running form.

I ran 60 miles last week.  Three quality workouts and four easy runs.  The fartlek and tempo runs were good, but I had a hard time to keep the pace up in the 11 mile marathon pace run on Friday.  I ran 7:15 on average, but I need to drop that pace to 6:55.  I am not in panic yet... I have 8 more weeks and I am feeling really strong.