Behold. The Long Run.

Okay. Raise your hand if you hate going back to work after a long vacation. Yup. Me too. But this blog's about training, racing & coffee. So we shant dwell.

Thanksgiving was good. I found myself in my hometown taking foot to trail for an hour and 20 minutes of romping in the 20 degree winter weather. Headwinds, crosswinds, from-the-back-winds. It was all there. I think there were even winds coming from above, down onto my head. For sure, it was winter out there. But all was rectified with healthy portions of turkey, pumpkin pie and the essential French Roast.

Saturday brought another hour-or-so trail run, this time out my front door and through the park. Afterwards it was time to kick back in front of the fire for the rest of the afternoon. For the rest of the weekend, actually. Somehow, the weekend wound up going by too fast though, and so here we are, getting ready for the week ahead.

Changing gears: I was just about to rant about the recent USA Triathlon decision to "align the age-group criteria with those of the ITU". This means that your age-group on race day will now be determined by your age at the end of that year. Bastardos!!! A cursary calculation had me thinking that this would put me in the Mens 30-34 bracket for the 2007 IM Lake Placid. In fact, it would put me right at the bottom of the (most competitive) age-group. And in this scenario, my chances for qualifying for the big one would be somewhere between Slim and None, with Slim running for the door. Luckily, my math skills are about as sharp as a cold potato, and so upon closer inspection I realize I'll be racing as a 29 year old during the season of 2007. Right at the top of my age-group. Muh-hah-hah-hah! Maybe now Slim will stick around for awhile.

Alright, time to get back to it.