The kick-off party last Thursday in Lexington for The Bourbon Chase at The Loft - photo by: Jim Jarman.

It’s a beautiful fall day here in Frankfort, Kentucky – sunny and 65, with a gusting breeze. I just returned from a strong 3.5 mile run around the capitol and through the downtown. My legs are still busted out from The Bourbon Chase. It’s not that those runs last Friday and Saturday were so long, (7.1, 5.3 and 5.2), but the repetition, hills and sleep deprivation jumped all over me. The back of my hamstrings and lower back are torched.

For more detail on how The Bourbon Chase (http://www.bourbonchase.com) went check out my story Sunday in Frankfort’s State-Journal. I’ll have it posted here soon.

Today was an encouraging run. After taking Sunday through Tuesday off to heal, I ran a hilly 6.3 miles Wednesday with Matt Rhody, who also is training to run the Iron Horse Half-Marathon on October 23rd, (http://www.ironhorsehalfmarathon.com), and we kicked that out in 8:30 to low 9:00 minute miles. While not exactly a thing of grace, we both ran hard up the hill on East Main Street and maintained strong strides through to the finish.

I wanted to at least stretch my legs today. I was pretty creaky walking out the door, but the training is really starting to kick in now. My legs move forward on auto-pilot, damaged or not. Even up around the capitol, which has inclines, I had impulse power available.

I kept my foot casually on the accelerator throughout and held a springing stride. My hope is The Bourbon Chase will end up serving as an extreme version of speed training. So long as my body heals, The Chase should pay excellent dividends come next Sunday.

Matt and I drove the Iron Horse course and it’s certainly full of rolling hills. Midway is horse and bourbon country, it’s gorgeous out there, but rarely flat. In fact Legs 33 and 34 of The Bourbon Chase covered the back half of the Iron Horse course, so I got a good review of it from my teammates.

It’s all good. That’s going to be a pleasure to run next weekend with the scenery, a strong field, and numerous friends to share in the suffering. Matt and I are planning to run an easy six or seven miles this Sunday. Then probably the same three mile course I did today on Tuesday, and finish with two miles Thursday, just to get the legs moving.

It’s always rewarding to see a training program come together. I’m never sure how they’re going to turn out at the start. It’s like a leap of faith. Matt and I have been on this since Aug. 1st, and while we’ve tweaked it along the way, it appears to have served us well.

This week and next are supposed to be taper weeks, low mileage, light, so all the pounding from the previous weeks recedes, muscles heal and the benefit rises to the surface. It’s awesome to feel some thunder in my thighs again. Give me next Friday and Saturday off completely and I’m ready to race 13.1 miles.

Our goal is relatively modest – just clip under two hours. That’s doable if I’m all healed up and the hills don’t get me. I’ll have my head right to take the pain. Now if I can only convince this 44 year old body to come along for the ride.