From Russia W/ Love

If memory serves me correctly{at 48 it's a full time gig remembering if I said something or thought I said something trust me!!!}back in mid to late January I mentioned having a big following in Russia on my blog,well continuing w/ the lovefest between yours truly and Mother Russia this is Darya Klishina the latest love of my life......suddenly I find myself being a huge Long Jump fan and demand that not just the finals of the women's Long Jump gets prime time track and field coverage but also the qualifying rounds too.......I suspect I may not be alone in this!!!!!!!! as I wrote in my diary Darya puts the HUB in hubba!!!!!!!

So catching up on recent days I put in back to back easy 6 milers on Friday and Saturday to leave me w/ 4x1mile repeats on Sunday to round out my week at 30 miles in my final full week of training b4 Indoor Nationals in Bloomington Indiania.
Conditions were grey and overcast when I arrived at Temple at 11.10am,as I made my way to the track I could see the wind gauges working overtime in the northeast corner above the track,I'm used to the wind being a factor but it's normally on the bottom turn and back straight,I guess today not only for shits and giggles but in keeping w/ the way things have gone this indoor season the wind chose to be a factor on the top turn and home straight.......great!!!

Mile warm up taken care of it was have at it time one last time b4 my 5th Indoor Nationals in 6 years having opted not to deal w/ the altitude in New Mexico last March.

#1 mile 1.21-1.26-1.30-1.28-5.45.5.After a reasonable opening two laps I think mentally I was already in Bloomington as my focus wasn't on the track at Temple as a pair of woeful 1.28-1.30 splits confirmed.

#2 mile 1.22-1.25-1.27-1.21-5.35.3.A little more like it but the wind was proving to be an issue when I resume my 3x2mile repeats this wouldn't be a bad pace but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a little slower than I'd prefer.

#3 mile 1.27-1.29-1.29-1.19-5.44.5.A little too much "Snakes and Ladders" for my liking,having gotten back on track{no pun intended} w/ #2 this repeat fell back into #1 territory.

#4 mile 1.22-1.29-1.33-1.10-5.34.8.A mixed bag if ever there was one,reasonable opening lap,seemed to fall asleep in the middle b4 clocking back to back 35 second 200s on the final lap.
Sure closing in 1.10 is something to be pleased w/ but coming off a 1.33 lap b4 hand it's not as satisfying as if it had come on the back of a 1.20 split.

I head into Indoor Nationals unsure of where I'm at, w/ the exception of my opening race of the Indoor season my 4.15.8. 1,500m on Dec 26th none of my other races have told me what to expect of myself as I toe the line at 6.15pm for the 3,000m on Friday and again at 12. 50pm for the mile on Saturday I guess we'll have to wait and see.