All I do is...

Win!
Run!
Write!
It's currently a mix between the three.  Last week was the monster week in my training.  Not quite as mega mileage as I had initially planned.  Was supposed to get in 49 miles.  But last Monday night, I got a crappy night's sleep, and Sarah said to bag the 10 mile track workout and substitute it with an easy 5 mile run.  44 instead of 49, but still the highest mileage I've had in a while.  It was the weekend runs that ultimately made up the bulk of the week's running: 12 on Saturday, 14 on Sunday.
Saturday's run was probably the best training run I've had in my Army Ten Miler build-up.  It was a progression run, where the pace gets faster and faster.  My mile repeats workouts on the track are fairly similar to this, but those are accompanied with a recovery lap.  No recovering on the road - just keep going and going.  The weather was beautiful - about 40 degrees and sunny.  I did my 2.5 mile warm-up on the National Mall, and then headed to the Mt. Vernon trail for the progression part.  This is a beautiful trail, and I think I am going to do all of my bigger runs on there from here on out.  I have to metro to get there, but I think when you take the $4 round-trip metro and think about it as an investment for training, that's not too bad.  Anyways, I was dressed like it was race day, and raring to go.  I was supposed to start at 7:20 pace and knock off 7-10 seconds per mile.  But not wanting to blow up/burn out, I started a little slower (which is preferable to going out too fast in this workout) - 7:35 for the first mile.  The miles clicked off nicely.  Not necessarily the most even splits: 7:35, 7:22, 7:05, 6:55, 6:50, 6:39, 6:35, but I was able to keep going faster and faster.  The weather was great, and I loved this trail too.  I didn't bring any gatorade or GU for this run - things that would've provided a little boost (even mentally) towards the end of the run.  But, this was a no-muss, no-fuss run.  I told myself that I would even feel better, stronger, faster (right?) when I have those on race day.
My legs felt pretty beat up though on Sunday's run!  On these long runs, particularly when they follow a workout day, are not about pace, but just getting the mileage in.  And 14 miles just takes a while, no matter how you slice it.
Army Ten Miler is Sunday, and I am so excited.  Weather calls for sun and high 40s at the start.  On Tuesday, I had my last tune-up track workout of a 2k, 1200, 2 x 800, 2 x 400.  It was a great workout - I felt like I had a lot of pep in my step, and in the final 400s, ran 1:28 and 1:26 - sub 6 minute pace.  Wahoo!  Obviously, 400s are different than a 10 mile run, but it was a good feeling to know I could still pull that out at the end of the day.
And it does feel like lately all I do is run or write.  I'm starting to move in a good direction with my dissertation, so I've just been working on getting some of my ideas out from my head and onto paper...or screen.  It's mainly medieval, it's a little modern running, but it's all getting documented!
I am so so so excited for Sunday.  The Army 10 Miler (ATM) has been what this whole fall season has been geared toward.  I am not running with a place goal in mind, but strictly a time goal.  The winner will ultimately run it in about 56 minutes - I am aiming for 67 minutes and change.  Things are different going into this race.  The last half dozen races I've done, I've placed in the top 10, which is pretty cool.  I know that realistically, that won't happen in this race.  I'm aiming for top 60-70, and am putting more (really, all) emphasis on hitting my time goal.  That will be the big victory if it all comes together.  Winning can certainly mean different things, depending on the day.