Quest For Boston

Hard long day at work.  I felt really tired so cut the run short.  Average pace was 8:23-slow.

I have a race tommorrow so took it fairly easy today.  I felt I had to do something, as my running has not exactly been motivated. I ran 8:14's holding myself back.  I definetly felt like going faster.

Perfect weather for a race in early April.  This race is one of my favorites.  The start and finish is about 300 yards from the ferry as you leave the Island so there's no need for off-island transportation.  It's also a very hilly course with some good competition; especialy in my age group.  Twenty five of the top 35 runners were over the age of 40.

I was hoping to run 6:30's for this race.  It doesn't seem to extreme of a goal unless one is familiar with the course.  All up and down with nary a flat spot to speak of.

Although the hills aren't that long, they are steep.  Having not been doing much in the way of hill training, I knew it would be a challenge.  My first mile was right on track at 6:28 which was a hard mile as it's mostly uphill.  That was followed up with a 6:02 as I took advantage of the following down hill.  I   tried to use the downhills tomy advantage in this race.  In the past I've used them as a place to rest and recover but felt that if I ran them harder I could gain some time.  It worked pretty well until later in  the race when at mile 5 I crashed and burned a bit.  I ran a 7:15 and was beginning to think of letting up completely.  I hate when those thoughts start running htrough my head.  Instead of giving in I set my sites on the runner in front of me and slowly reeled him in over the next 1/2 mile.  I realized at this point that I was in the top 10- something I've always wanted to do at this race and there was no way I was going to fall back in the pack. I once again set my sites on the runner ahead of me.  Every time I would close on his shoulder he would move back out to a 20 yard lead or so and then I'd try to get abck on his shoulder.  Although I never quite caught him; using him helped me to push through to the end of the race.

     My average pace for the race was 6:36; only a second off my percieved best possible goal.  It was also almost a full 1.5 minutes under my previous P.R. for this course. I am very happy with my performance.  With no immediate race in my future I'm looking forwards to doing some consistent and productive training.  Hopefully it will help me get back some of my motivation that was lost after deciding against my spring marathon.

5 easy recovery miles with Dave.  We started out at 12:00 with cloudy skies and a slight mist.  By half-way into the run the skies had opened up and we were soaked to the bone.  The worst part was running  along the high tension wires and watching as the lightning came crashing down about a quarter mile away.  We kept telling each other that the wires would probably protect us from a lightning strike.  Not sure if it's true but it sounded good.  We ended up running the last 2 miles a bit quicker than we would have liked.  Regardless, it felt good.

8.5 miles with Dave and Gary at noon today.  It feels a lot easier when running with others.  The miles just seem to fly by.  The weather was much nicer for todays run.  We did an easy 7 and then- as usual when running with these jokers, it was a race to the barn the last mile+.  Finished up with a 7:10 last mile going up hill. Average pace was pretty slow for us- 8:07's so they are slowing down a bit during supposed easy days. 

My Garmin says that my average pace was 8:46 but ti also shows that my slowest mile was 8:10 so I'm not sure what to believe.  I'm pretty sure that I wasn't running 8:45's so I'll assume that I ran 8:00's.  It seems more likely.  It's strange because I never lost signal.  The run felt realy good.  Looking forwards to a long run on Sunday.

Planned on an easy 10 but added to the lenght as We felt really good.  Last long run for Dave before Boston next Monday.   A bit of jealousy on my part, as I won't be running it.  Hopefully next year- once I qualify.  Averaged 8:10's but it didn't feel that fast.

    I am finaly caught back up on my blog here.  I haven't been real consistent with it like I had hoped to be.  Ever since I decided not to run my May marathon it's been a bit of a struggle to get out and train.  And then the idea of blogging about it seems kind of pointless with no long term goal.  It's time to set a fall goal.  Hopefully sooon.

First track workout of the season. The idea going into this season is to run less intensely but with a shorter gap between intervals. Hopefully that will help prevent injuries and keep me healthy while improving my speed and VO2 max.

Repeat 400's with 400 recovery run in between at 2:10- 2:20 pace.

1. 1:34

2. 1:28

3. 1:28

4. 1:26

5. 1:29

6. 1:26

7. 1:25

8. 1:28

Legs did get a bit tired near the end and I had to work hard the last 3 laps but I believe that's the purpose of the exercise. My achilles are tight so I'll keep an eye on them the next couple of days.

recovery day.  Felt sluggish today.  Off day tommorrow.

Tweaked my back at work today.  It hurts to breath so I'll be taking a couple of days off at least.

Boston got me excited yesterday but I took another day off just to be safe.  Ran what felt like an easy 5 but the clock showed 7:38's.   We'll see how tommorrow treats me. 

A beautiful morning so I took advantage of it before the rain came back in.   Ran 7:45's  and felt great.

I've been working on trying chi running and it seems to have sped upmy running abit.  7:35's for a recovery run today.  I'll be curious to see how I feel after a week of this.

easy 1:20 minute run off road.  It felt good to get into the woods;even if I did get lost.

Slow and steady wins the race.  Temps in the mid 80's made for a real challenge.  It seems the weather has skipped right over the 70's.  Today was tough.

1.5 mile warm up followed by 6 x 1/4 repeats with 1/4 mile jog in between. 1 mile cool down.

The first couple felt very sluggish and I had to work hard to meet my goal time of 1:24.  The last 4 each one got easier and easier.  I was tempted to add a couple extras but with a scheduled 5k this weekend thought better of it.

a medium effort run today.  Half off road;  half on.  Everything felt good except for my right foot where the mid- forefoot just to the right of the ball started to bother me post run..  Definetly a little swelling going on.  I'll have to keep an eye on it. Average 7:42's.