When you come to a fork in the road…

take it!

So urged the redoubtable Mr. Berra in one of his immortal “Yogisms,” and it comes to mind now as a dilemma presents itself: has aerobic fitness progressed far enough to start hill/anaerobic capacity training in preparation for a period of 5K races in October/November – or should it continue to be rebuilt, perhaps for a late-season half marathon?

In the sense that more miles had been accumulated in the prior 14 weeks, the endurance ‘base’ was undoubtedly deeper (or wider, if you prefer) in June when injury struck, but judging by the pace of recent training runs as well as performance in today’s North Coast Challenge (30 seconds faster than last year), aerobic fitness is as good as ever, so it’s time to transition first to an abbreviated period of hill repetition training (planned a bit more carefully this time!), followed by a couple weeks of track intervals to build anaerobic capacity, then begin racing and slowly taper to a peak in late October/early November.