There is no wind when it's a SRD 

Run 2: 5.5 miles with a back pack. The past two weeks the bag is not as heavy as the first week. I come up with strategies to carry as little back home as I can.

12 miles for the day, with 4 at Threshold pace (faster than HMP)

Cold, windy, and rainy. Yep, today is a good day for soup.

It's here! Damn that rain is cold, and the wind: oof! 

In the midlatitudes (30 to 60 N, and 30 to 60 S), prevailing winds are westerly (from the west).  That's because we're part of the Ferrel cell, which means on the large scale, we get rising air at ~60 degrees latitude, and sinking air at ~30 degrees latitude (which is the reason why many of the world's deserts are found around 30 degrees north or south).

 

So this sets up a circulation of south-to-north flow (in the northern hemisphere) between 30 and 60 degrees (that sinking air at 30 degrees latitude spreads out in both directions, north and south).  Then the Corolis force pulls the moving air to the right; so our south-to-north flow ends up as generally west-to-east.  Same principle in the southern hemisphere, they get north-to-south flow between 30 and 60, and the Corolis force pulls to the left, not right.  So north-to-south flow, pulled left, also results in westerly flow.

 

The tropics (between 30 north and 30 south) tend to have easterly flow, since they get sinking air at 30 degrees and rising air at the equator.

 

I'll save the issue of counterclockwise vs. clockwise winds around low and high pressure for another time, if anyone even cares.  

 

Yes I majored in meteorology in college, although it's not what I do now. 

I understand! I had to read a few lines about the Coriolis force, but I totally get it! Thanks!

Indoor track

9.5 miles with

6x800m with 2 minute recoveries

Then 4x200m hard with 200m recoveries

In the midlatitudes (30 to 60 N, and 30 to 60 S), prevailing winds are westerly (from the west).  That's because we're part of the Ferrel cell, which means on the large scale, we get rising air at ~60 degrees latitude, and sinking air at ~30 degrees latitude (which is the reason why many of the world's deserts are found around 30 degrees north or south).

 

So this sets up a circulation of south-to-north flow (in the northern hemisphere) between 30 and 60 degrees (that sinking air at 30 degrees latitude spreads out in both directions, north and south).  Then the Corolis force pulls the moving air to the right; so our south-to-north flow ends up as generally west-to-east.  Same principle in the southern hemisphere, they get north-to-south flow between 30 and 60, and the Corolis force pulls to the left, not right.  So north-to-south flow, pulled left, also results in westerly flow.

 

The tropics (between 30 north and 30 south) tend to have easterly flow, since they get sinking air at 30 degrees and rising air at the equator.

 

I'll save the issue of counterclockwise vs. clockwise winds around low and high pressure for another time, if anyone even cares.  

 

Yes I majored in meteorology in college, although it's not what I do now. 

That is pretty remarkable!

BTW: in case anyone who was involved in the discussion a couple days ago has been lying awake at night wondering, I am keeping my schedule as written for now. I may or may not still do the race, and if so I would adjust next week's schedule to some degree, but I will decide closer to that date. I really should blow off the race, but if I don't, I plan to punish myself by sticking to the scheduled 21-miler the next day.

Marathon training is all about the punishment, after all.