W-W-W-W-Wilke!!!

Today, we got to do Wilke one last time prior to the much more moderately hilly AT&T marathon (compared to the Wilke hill). One of our number asked for Wilke, and so Gilbert granted that request. For a change, I wasn't all that geeked up about the Big W today. I guess I'm becoming somewhat accustomed to that workout, although I still get a little twinge inside thinking about those last couple of repeats. It was a nice day for running, with temps right at 40 degrees.

We all did the long warmup/cooldown version of Wilke today, which is my favorite way of doing it. There was a very small group today, and again, that's typical when W-W-W-Wilke is on the posted schedule. Gilbert said we needed a minimum of 5 repeats, up to a maximum of 7, with 3 backwards Wilkes after that. That sounded okay to me, so after a few more words of encouragement, we were off. About 5 of us cut a bit off of the warmup run, sort of unintentionally, but we ended up getting there at about the same time, it seemed. A handful of folks had left earlier so that they could get all the Wilke goodness done in time for them to get to work, and they were hard at work when we arrived.

We did the drills, but we had a moment of amusement when a neighbor walked through us with her three little white dogs (terriers of some sort, I think). That wasn't so funny, but she had two on leashes and was carrying one dog in her arms. It was a strange sight at 6:15am.

Kenny gave us the instructions one more time, and we got started. I figured I'd do 5 for sure, and then I'd see how I felt about doing the extra one or two that were available. For some reason, I was feeling okay about the hill today, and I found the appropriate climbing gear early. I hooked up with Brian about 3 repeats into the festivities, and we helped each other push through the rest of the day. After the "minimum" of 5 repeats, we both were sort of looking to the other to suggest doing one more repeat, and came to the mutual decision to do the sixth. That was enough, though. We were strong all the way through 6 repeats, kept our pace up, and didn't slow to a walk, so I scored this as a good Wilke day. The three backwards repeats went better than usual, too, and I didn't crumple to a walk on the third like I have in the past. Thumbs up!

After all that, we gathered at the bottom of the hill with Frank, Colleen and Rachel, and started the cooldown run back to RunTex. The conversation turned saucy pretty quickly, which made the run back a lot of fun. Trail Confidenciality Rules prevent further details from being published, of course. :-)

Once we were done, I got in some stretching and chatted with Gilbert again about goals for AT&T. After contemplation (and some help from Frank), Gilbert decided that my stated plan of running with the 3:45 pace group sounds like a good one on this course. I promised to pick a more friendly course for a more serious time-based attempt on the marathon soon, perhaps Fall 2007?

For the day, I came up with about 7.5 miles. My schedule is a little goofed up this week, so I'll have two recovery type days in a row (Tues/Wed) with 5 mile easy runs and gym visits, and 10x800m on Thursday morning with that Gazelles crew. Gilbert said that we'll do those 800's a little slower than usual, but not much slower. This year, we're doing different stuff these last two weeks compared to previous pre-marathon taper times, but it should all work out about the same. Except for a faster finish time for me, of course! :-)