Alaskan Pack Fodder

The other day I was commenting on a friend's Facebook post and I realized it had been seven and a half years since I have been on-form (for me) during a race season. After that point, injury, illness, lack of motivation, and any number of other things derailed my plans, until I reached the point where I stopped trying. Throw in job stress, career change, weight gain, frequent travel... yeah, it's been a while since I've been in shape when I've needed to be. There were a couple of points where I felt good, but it was always during the wrong point of the year. Every year it gets a little harder. Sure, getting older is part of it, and I accept that. I know a lot of guys who are older than me and are still insanely strong through good genes and/or good living. Maybe modern medicine too, but I figure I'm not really doing my part shoving boxes of vanilla wafers down my throat at a sitting, so any fingers should be pointed directly at me. My resolve gets weak at times, and

Right now my squiggly lines are back up to where they were a month ago, which is to say, too damn high. The last time I hit these numbers I was finishing up a stint at a radar site. I used the couple weeks I was at home to back off and recover, then started building when I was back in the field. After a couple weeks of nothing I'd call excessive intensity or duration, here I am at the ragged edge of being cooked. Except I'm not. I'm tired, but nothing a good rest day isn't going to fix. Today is the rest day, so it seems like I'm right on schedule. A couple good nights of sleep (no waking up early to climb on the trainer) and a day to relax should be all I need to bounce back and start cranking away. So I'm at a decision point. Do I hit the previous peak and then back off, or do I pick another arbitrary round number to shoot for over the next two weeks? Chances are I'll pick the latter, pushing my luck to see how far I can push things in the all-important mi