Conjuring Up The Spirit Of The Penguin

Back in the day when I used to subscribe to Runners World I always enjoyed John Bingham's coloum,his signature sign off was "the miracle wasn't that I reached the finish line,the miracle was that I made it to the starting line"or words to that effect.
A lot of my track season felt that way w/ the whole anemia issue but w/ that now seemingly taking a turn for the better I felt the John Bingham quote applied to this mornings 3x2 mile repeats.

Having spent most of Friday nite dancing at Sex Dwarf and not getting home till 2.30am it was always going to be an issue how well or how badly I managed to handle these repeats off of 6.5 hours sleep but given the option of not going out Friday,or doing the repeats on Sunday after my 12 miler this was the hand I'd dealt myself so whatever the outcome today it was the best I could hope for.
Conditions were sunny and mild,w/ the exception of August 1st the day I drove back from Cleveland I don't think I've seen a 90 degree day since,tradition dictates that September and October are my favourite months to train in weather wise,the fact I haven't paid attention to the billboard in Fresh Grocers parking lot to see what the temperature is for the past few weeks indicates how much milder it's gotten.
Arrived at Temple by 10.30am,I anticipated arriving later but was pleasantly surprised to answer the alarm going off at 8.50am and rolling out the front door by 9.30am.....the sixty four billion dollar question was just how awake was I?????

#1 repeat 1.23.7-1.27.5.-1.29.7.-1.29.9.-1.30.0.-1.30.3.-1.28.8.-1.22.8.-11.42.9.Not earth shattering by any means,but not my slowest repeat either(week #3 I opened in 11.57.5.)
I knew when I didn't open in 1.20 like I have been doing in recent weeks that a dip in time was on the cards but today was more about seeing what I could do.

#2 repeat 1.23.4-1.28.1.-1.30.6-1.32.9.-1.32.9.-1.31.7.-1.31.4-1.24.6.-11.55.9.The inevitable 1.30 plus repeats crept in on laps,4-7 the writing had been on the wall on #1 when laps 5&6 were 1.30 but there was no holding back the tide today,however in a modicum of satisfaction I had at least kept the repeat at sub 12 which is more than could be said for weeks #1 and #3 when repeats #2 and #3 both went over that mark(12.28.8.-12.26.1.-12.23.8.-12.10.3)

#3 repeat 1.24.3.-1.27.6.-1.29.7.-1.29.7.-1.30.7.-1.29.9.-1.27.9.-1.13.4.-11.33.4.Throw out last weeks exceptional 11.15.5. and this was my fastest closing repeat to date,once again I was able to throw down a closing lap in the 1.13-1.14 zone which is pleasing given that on lap 24 of a set of repeats there is considerable juice in the tank.

Overall I'm pleased w/ the outcome,obviously I'm not pleased to see a dip in times after two weeks of lowering my times but I'm realistic enough to know that being out till 1.20am the nite b4 a repeat is going to have an effect on the times I run,were this my final week of repeats I know I wouldn't have been so cavalier w/ my attitude but frankly I enjoyed being out Friday nite and will continue to make first Fridays of the month 80's nite at Sex Dwarf,I don't see a conflict of intrest on the Oct,Nov,Dec schedule and besides every once in a while you need to brake the cycle of work,training,blogging,I believe it was Midnight Oil who said it best in "Truganini"
Somebody's got you on that treadmill mate,but I hope you're not beaten yet,not yet.