Well my training for Ironman Wisconsin is all but over. There are two weeks of progressive taper left before race day, Sunday, 13 September. It will be a small miracle if I can avoid driving myself or my family insane between now and then.

Today I ran the 28th annual Woodbury Country Mile (half-marathon). This was my third. When I did it the first time, I was not sure what a country mile was. Well, a country mile is an informal term meant to mean a great distance, significantly longer than a real mile. One possible origin of the term is that when one travels over unfavorable terrain the perceived distance between two points seems much longer, which fits this race very well. Not that your running through a corn field or anything, but the coarse meanders through the biking/walking trails of Woodbury, MN. There are lots of turns and plenty of short steep inclines and declines.

It was a cool start to the day (49 F), and I over dressed. It gave me an opportunity to practice my hydration strategy which I’m still fine tuning.

I parked at the club (Lifetime Fitness) about a mile and half away from the start line so I’d get a nice warm up and cool down in for the day. It would also allow me to get a short recovery swim in afterwards.

The race today produced a new Woodbury PR (-5:00 min from last year) and a new half-marathon PR (-3:00 min from New Prague earlier this year). My legs were tired from the start but I was able to find and maintain a rhythm. On a less positive note, I strained my right achilles, hopefully nothing a little R.I.C.E. won’t fix; I’m sure looking forward to my two week taper.

Next stop is Madison, WI… all aboard!