THE PREFACE.

     The nerves I feel every XC season are always so different, it's a combination of excited, scared, fired up, anxious and this year worried. Only worried because I must pray to the running gods to let the knee hold out, I have been doing a fair amount of maintenance work to stay out of danger but knowing that I am no longer invincible frightens me. Can I handle the 140km weeks? Can I handle the intense workouts? Can I manage with minimal R&R? Questions I do not know the answer too and am very eager to find out.

     As per the rest of the summer, I managed to average about 8-9 hours a week, ranging from 110-125km for 12 weeks, mainly singles as well. For the first time in my life I convinced myself to take a down week, which felt very weird, and I am not sure how I feel about it.

     On the flip side to that, found my way back to school, after a brief solo training camp very similar to what I believe life at Percy Cerutty's Camp would be like. Good food, and 10 miles of beautiful beach to run on. Many say beach running is over rated, I could spend hours running on that beach. Never wore shoes for all 3 days. Was wonderful. 

I guess to finish this all off, 

CIS is in ten weeks,
The beard is beginning to emerge,
So let the battle begin.

rj