I ran my 3 km time trial this morning in 10:51 (3:42, 3:42, 3:27). I felt very comfortable throughout and was surprised at how easy it was to run the first couple of kilometres at 3:42/km pace, though the last kilometre was a bit harder. And all on minimal speed work and coming off an injury.

You may wonder why I’m including training sessions of this pace when I won’t be running anywhere near this fast in my upcoming 12 hour event. The reason is that, when you feel comfortable at a faster pace, you feel more comfortable at a slower pace, both physically and mentally. The fact that I did is easily at this pace today indicates my stamina is good, which is critical in a 12 hour event.

This is one of Carmel’s favourite photos from the world run. The gravel is on the shoulder of a road in Illinois, and you can see a corn field across the road in the back ground.

On This Day

Jul 4, 2012

Distance today = 43.06 km; Total distance = 8746.29 km; Location = Tomah, Wisconsin (12 km south of) – 43 53.183′ N, 90 32.923′ W; Start time = 0958 Finish time = 1721

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/195846679

I reached another major milestone today – I’m more than one-third of the way in my run around the world.

And just for a change, the Fourth of July was even hotter. As I mentioned a few days ago, I take a thermometer with me now so I can know the real temperature on the road, not what it is in some shaded weather station. Today it reached 115 F (46 C).

Luckily I had Carmel stopping to provide me with a drink every mile and a half. It’s not possible to survive without such regular drink stops in heat like this.

I normally consider wind to be the weather element I like least, but today I was craving it. A headwind, tailwind, crosswind, anything that diminishes the effect of the humidity. Unfortunately, it was pretty much still all day long.

Once again the landscape was truly beautiful. Hopefully I’ll get to enjoy it under more favourable weather conditions before I run out of the region.

Finally, another big thank you to Diane and George for their hospitality over the past three days. They really are great people, and they live in a great part of the world.