7 weeks to go (and one morning to remember)!

Very, very beautiful morning at GAFE's "sanctuary", the route Cascais-Guincho. Carlos and I had 28 km on the plan (our second "longão", two more to go). And Elvis was there, with his friend Katarina (a young triathlete from Sweden living in Portugal), to run some, provide coaching support and photo coverage. It all went... well... beautifully. Carlos did his 28km at an average of 4:55 pace, which is worth of note, since his marathon pace (to brake 3h30) is just at 5:00 pace! In other words, he did his long run faster than his projected marathon pace, and I can attest he wasn't completely exhausted at the end. I think this is the result of his fast training, especially on the track where the progress has been obvious. So the indications are good for our Great Leader! We just have to keep him injury-free... which means entertaining him during off-training days, to minimize the risk of him going running when he should be resting or cross-training. I have some ideas for that... in the brand new "big screen" of Cruz Quebrada and some nice meals!

Here's just a sample of this morning's training:

For the whole coverage (22 pictures) , in low definition CLICK HERE:

And in "full HD" (35MB) CLICK HERE!

Big thanks to Elvis and Katarina, both of whom did the first 14 km with us (we were at 4:10-4:15 pace for most of that), and then provided top-rated athletic support to Carlos and me. And Elvis is clearly improving on his photo skills, as you can see!!

This week, the plan for the "training camp" is:

• Mon: gym workout/active recovery (at least for me, in the morning at FMH)
• Tue: track interval training (some pyramid Carlos has built!)
• Wed: mid-range marathon pace flat run (18 km)
• Thu: active recovery (details TBD)
• Fri: track workout (details TBD - Elvis???)
• Sat: rest/active recovery
• Sunday: no idea! it's "no-long run Sunday"...Carlos, what's on the plan??

There may be some "improv" changes along the way (my speciality), but this is the general idea.
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Next time somone asks me "what is all this crazy running about?", I'll just show them the pictures from today. They tell the story better than any words...!