Quest For Boston

5 miles at 7:46 pace

Long day at work today.  I came home and didn't feel much like running but forced myself out the door.  Gald I did.  Legs were a bit heavy but pushed myself to run a bit out of my comfort level.

I was thinking about running all day today.  Although my legs were tired I decided that mentaly I needed to push myself.  Did my 1.1 mile warm up and proceeded to run the St. Pats 5k course.  18:42 for 6:02 pace.  miles were 6:05, 5:59, 6:03.  This was my p.r. before this season.  The run didn't feel great by any stretch of the imagination but I pushed through and didn't allow my mind to shut down.  These tempo runs are not exactly fun but I do enjoy the feeling of accomplishment when they are over. Now to find out why my lone hard runs are so close to my races as far as times.HMM?

Easy recovery run today.  The calfs were realy tight. I never realy got flowing. Off day scheduled for tommorrow.

4 miles in 31 minutes. Worked on better form for the last 2 miles. Need to find a more efficient way to run. I feel myself leaning back in my stride the past few months.  Slight forwards lean is keeping more off my heels and quicker. Long run tommorrow.

10ish miles today. My Garmin died at about 7.5 miles and I was running a course I'm not familiar with.  No matter.   I went off road for a good portion of todays run which slowed me down quite a bit. Lots of fallen leaves out there hiding ankle twisters. Weather was 43 degrees with a slight drizzle so not ideal conditions. Made the idea of not adding on more miles to the end of the loop easy to make.  It took a good hour to thaw out my hands.  I guess I'm going to have to break out the winter gear sooner rather than later.  Now that day light savings is here it's going to get tougher to get out the door.  I miss working for myself just for this reason.  I'm not a huge fan of running in the dark.

4 miles at 7:38 pace.  The dark days of winter are upon me.  One day of running in the dark and I'm ready to cry!  Just kidding.  It does make it tough to get out there however.  Run felt good otherwise.

13.1 in 1:33:03

Not realy a race but more a time trial.  I ran a 1/2 marathon on this course last year and enjoyed it so much I decided to do irt again this year.  Sadly, the race was not scheduled again.  This is an interesting course.  First half is super flat and fast.  I averaged 6:40's for the first 7 befor the hills started and kicked my butt!  There are 2 realy tough hills. The one at mile 7 is 3/4 of a mile long and steep, and the one at mile 12.  The one at twelve is shorter but steeper.  You feel like you're walking as you climb it.  Good news is I found a second gear for the final mile and finished up with a 6:08.  Surprised myself.  No negative split here today.  I obviously need some more hill work.

Easy recovery run today. The calfs were pretty soar after Sunday but loosened up nicely during todays run. Busy day at work kept me from hydrating properly. I need to find the time on these busy days to properly fuel my body.

Easy morning run.

10.3 at 8:36

LSD today. Not as far as I would have liked but I had a work appt. at 9:00.  Ran with Dave and a couple of new guys in the neighborhood.  It went by fast and I felt good. It's getting close to thinking about Boston time. Time to find myself a training program.

Easy recovery run today.

Early morning as I had to put the turkey in the oven befor running out the door for the race.  Cold and windy conditions. Temp was 33 with 20 mph winds.  I wasn't feeling my best as I fell asleep on the couch and spent the night twisted up like a pretzel.  Add the fact that I'm dealing with some sort of bronchille issue and it was a recipe for a poor performance.

     Only did a mile warm up as I was running late to the start.  By the end of it I was going through my normal hacking up a lung ritual.  Luckily it tends to last only long enough to bring up the nasty's and then I'm fine again until I lie down.

     There were a surprising number of good runners who showed up this morning.  I usualy finish in the top 5 with no worry but I could tell right away that the top 10 would be quick.  Having left my Garmin home I have no idea what my splits were.  I thought today would be a good day to run sans watch as my times have been consistent to the point of scary. I'm just starting to wonder if I run too much by the clock and not enough by my training and how I feel.  Last month I ran a hillier cousre in 18:42 by myself in practise so you would think a real race would be a bit quicker.  18:38 is a bit quicker but not by much. 

     I went out hard for the firstmile as I didn't want to lose contact with the leaders.  Sadly my legs just wouldn't respond after that.  I used the hill at mile2 to star making a move on the three runners in front of me and managed to close the gap from about 200 yards to 50 but then course went into a tight turn and I tweeked my hammy a bit.rounding the corner.  It forced me to hld back on the down hill leading into the finish.  It was sad to watch the 3 men in front of me pull away but it's just a turkey day 5k.  No need to get hurt. I suppose if I had realy wanted 2nd I wouldn't have yelled at them as they started taking a wrong turn at the bottom of the hill.

     I'm pretty happy with my effort but a little frustrated with my lack of speed.  The legs just don't want to turn over any quicker.  I guess I'll have to do some more core work and hit the track if I realy want to improve.

6 miles today at 7:56.  Started out slowly and picked it up as I went along.  My legs felt surprisingly good after yesterdays race. X-country 5k tommorrow.

The streak is over.  I've finished this race in 4th place for the first five years of it's existence but this year slipped to 5th.  The high school kids are getting faster. :)  I love this race as it takes place over the local high schools x-country course. As a former XC runner back in the day it's nice to get off the roads.  I wish I lived off island sometimes so I could do a few trail races.

The ankle felt a little fragile to start this run.  Tendonitis sucks.  Luckily it felt better as the race progressed.  I started out slower than on Thursday for two reasons. One; the start of this race can get scary with all the young kids sprinting to the front for the photo op. Two; I really wanted to see how I was feeling after racing 2 days ago.  This combo of races is a yearly tradition and after last years 19:42 I wanted to run a smarter race.

 After starting out in about 12th place I settled in to a pace that didn't feel too fast and focused on the person in front of me.  By the end of the first mile I had moved up into about 10th place and started to pick up the pace. I could see that there was a small group of high school kids about 80 yards up on me so I tried to reel them in.  Didn't quite work out as the lead group continued to pull away but a stragler would drop off the pack and I would slowly reel them in. With about 1/2 a mile to go I found myself in7th place with 2 runners working together to try to hold me off.  As I moved up along side them, one of the guys fell back off the pace while the other pulled ahead.  I bided my time and stayed on his heels until just before a big clearing when I went by him at a full sprint.  I held it for about 30 seconds and took a peek over my shoulder as the course took a hairpin turn and saw that he was 40 yards in the rearview mirror.  Styed relaxed and finished strong over the final 200 yards to take 5th place.

I managed to run a PR for this course today without feeling like I had run as fast as I could have. Plus it was a lot of fun to run a race with strategy for a change.  This race officialy marks the end of racing season so it's all about packing on the miles until the Boston Prep 16miler at the end of January. I'm starting to get excited. :)

I woke up looking forwards to running this morning.  I wasn't sure how I'd feeel after 2 5k's in 3 days but I felt good.  The calfs weren't sore at all and my hip and ankle felt o.k.  I ran the Southern woodlands with Dave and then added on the East Chop loop for  an additional 3 miles to the run.  I think I'll try to avoid the woods for a while, at least until some of the leaves are packed down or blown away. Dave tweaked his ankle early on in the run and it made me a little nervous with the way my ankle has been feeling of late.

Did a little cross training afterwards with some yard work.

6 miles at a steady effort of pushing myslef slightly. Felt really good.