Start As You {Hopefully} Mean To Go On

After a less than satisfying week b4{4 days at 25 miles} I needed to "right the ship" and get back to the 5 day/40mpw plateau that I believe will aid and abet my off season as I continue to lay the groundwork for the upcoming track season.
The plan this week he said tentativly holding his breath and crossing his fingers was 6 miles,8 miles,8 miles,8 miles of repeats and a Sunday long ran of 10 miles to round out a 40 mile week.....piece of cake he said....

It's not like I haven't "been there,done that" in recent weeks,I said at the end of August I needed to be consistant in that 5 day/40mpw  schedule and having "nailed it" in week one it felt like a backwards step last week to fall short but that  was last week and if I could kick this week off w/ an incident free 6 miler I'd be on my way to hopefully another 40 mile week.
Conditions were overcast when I set off at 4.40pm.....having made sure to get my achilles stretches in b4 hand this time....I ditched my shades for this run.....and my sleeveless running shirt......yep summer is coming to an end.

A couple of weeks ago I lamented on the fact the temps had dropped to 77 degrees,well on the outbound leg of this 6 mie miler Peco Tower was showing 70 degrees,71 on the inbound leg....either way things are cooling off.
One thing NOT cooling off is my ability to "accept a challenge" I happened to notice "shirtless bandana man" coming down the Market St bike ramp as I ran along the Schuylkill Bank and w/in 200m he went by me.....fair enough but then he not only slowed down but kept looking over his left shoulder to see  if I was going to return the complement.....I thought it best to put his neck muscles out of their misery and went by him w/in 200m and didn't see him again till I turned at Lloyd Hall to head back down the banks.

While this issue of knee lift still feels contentious my leg turnover was far greater on this run,I was able to "freewheel" the downhills nand work the uphills,something that's been lacking in recent weeks,granted it was only a 6 miler off of basically back to back 5 milers but when your confidence and self beliefe have taken a battering of late you'll take any positives and run w/ them.....no pun intended!.
Granted there will be sterner test this week kicking off w/ an 8 miler tonite but it was a good start to the week.....let's hope it continues!