Back home!

As usual the User Conference got pretty hectic and that combined with dining and drinking and then trying to catch up on email at around midnight (or later!) meant sleep was lookin good! However I managed to slip in another quick trip to a different set of shops and was rewarded with a good bargain on a set of Nike Frees, as well as a set of sunglasses with interchangable lens for running. Getting back my final new toy arrived which I had pre-ordered for delivery, a noice 305 :)

I caught up with one of my collegues who is the VP for EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Afica) and a very good runner (he was the one who headed off to Death Valley last weekend). Arnaud ran 3:04 in New York last year. He still wanted to go for a run so we headed off Wednesday morning, me fully kitted out with the new 305 and Nike Air Elites.

Straight up the strip, Arnaud couldn't be bothered with the pedestrian bridges and so we charged across some intersections of traffic, bloody mad! Turned at Mandalay Bay to do a loop near the airport and then head parallel with the Strip meeting it near the Stardust. Arnaud really clapped on the pace here in bursts, it seems he neglected to tell me he was going to do some 1km reps at Half Marathon Pace (ie 4 min/km). Not being mentally ready for this and with the achilles seemingly complaining I drifted off him a little. A good run back along the Strip past the new Wynn hotel/casino and the Treasure Island, The Venetian and The Mirage.



Stats
Distance 11.6km
Time 55:00
Avg Pace 4:44 min/km
Avg HR 165

Very impressed with the 305, it picked up signal very quickly where the 301 struggled for a while 2 days previously. Will take a little while to learn all the new stuff and get used to the new button placement. The shoes also felt very comfortable however the achilles pulled up pretty sore and is certainly inflammed, more ice and gel!

Finally back after the long haul, not helped by plane mechanical problems out of Las Vegas. I wore my skins from Los Angeles to Sydney and stayed awake to try and restore the body clock. Everything seemed to work as I feel quite normal this morning, the ankle is pain free again now but still a little swollen, it looked very swollen last night but I think that was due to the long flight than anything else.

Will give things a sorting out this afternoon at my first West Met race, should be interesting! One week to go for the SMH and I won't taper really, not enough distance being done to worry about a taper.