Boston Strong

Great time  volunteering as course monitor at Mile 16 of the Atlanta marathon.  I probably had the best section of the course, located in Piedmont Park with a view of Atlanta skyline.  Alex was with me and he had fun as well, we were also right by the basketball courts, so he got some practice in, as he made the 9th grade team last week.  2nd place Masters won $400with a 3:12, made me second guess my fall marathon choice! It his a hilly course, but I think I could have run a sub 3:10, as I did a 16 mile training tun on the same hills in March at a 3:05 pace, before I had established any type of mileage base.  Oh well, I dont run for money anyway, but sure would have been nice! lol

Since September was a high mileage month, and October was mostly taper and recover, I realized I have not done too much speed work recently, other than racing every weekend the last 8 weeks!  Decided to do some faster miles & wasn't sure how long I wanted to run, so I jumped right into them.  Did 3 more recovery miles @ 8:07 AP with some strides of varying lengths mixed into them randomly.

First 3 miles: 6:57, 6:37, 6:22

These felt harder than they should have aerobically, but that may be because I jumped right into them without any warm up.

While running 4 miles at my intended tempo pace of 7:15, I found myself wondering how I ever run a sub 20 5k, much less a sub 21!  At 4 miles I stopped, decided I was not enjoying my run, reset my watch & started running again without looking at my watch again ... I ran another 4 miles ... obviously slower ... but it did not matter, I enjoyed myself.

I have decided I am not going to worry about pace anymore, I am going to run when I want, for however long I want, and at whatever pace I want!  I will strive to keep one guideline in place, which was the first piece of advice I got when I joined this blog ... try to run 6 days a week, 1 hour a day, pace does not matter.  I enjoy my runs more that way!

Speed play workout: 4 flat intervals about 240 meters each, 3 uphill about 120 meters, and 2 downhill about 120 meters ... comfortable pace in between.

 An interesting article ... 'Essential Lydiard'

http://runningtimes.com/Print.aspx?articleID=18121

My last post should not be mistaken for 'not trying to continually improve' ... I am simply going to trust my 'inner coach', and in that process I am turning off the pace feature on my Garmin.  I will still wear it, but I have set the display to show only 'total time'.

I have achieved the time goals that are important to me ... in fact I have far exceeded them ... in a years time.  The focus of training now is to improve my performance on the soccer field ... and get back to playing soccer!  Fartlek runs and building base mileage will be most beneficial to me ... pace per mile does not matter on the soccer field.

Oh and the new profile picture is a personally signed poster by Bill Rodgers, who I met last fall at a local 10k race ... the quote at the bottom by him ... which you probably cannot read ... is:

"To be a consistent winner means preparing not just one day, one month, or even one year -but for a lifetime."

I guess to summarize  ... I believe if I decide I want to run a 2:48 marathon ... I can and will ... but there are other things that are more important to me right now.  That is the time standard for elite athletes in my age group to be invited to the USA Masters Marathon championships.  That would be pretty cool, but I would still get crushed by the competition at that time.  So a more meaningful and realistic goal would be to place top 3 in the 50+ age group ... time will tell if that is something I pursue ... but for now I just want to enjoy running.  I think that fits in best with my 5 to 15 year running goals!  :)

Rain tonight, so I did Spin for 30 min, then jumped on TM.  Started at 6.7 & bumped a notch every minute until I hit 8.7, held for 1 mile, got some water & repeated  same thing.  This gave  me a new apprecition for how I hung on & gutted out my marathon, as that was my speed for Mile 26.  1mile of that tonight was enough with a nice easy 2.5 mile progressive warmup.  I was happy when the second round was done, quick cool down on bike, and now time for some hot soup and cold beer!  There was no way to turn the speed display off on the TM, so I figured I would get a couple MP miles in ... surely  these will feel much easier in April!  :)

Relaxing hour run, 5k with Alex in morning ... not really in racing spirit, but hopefully I can muster up 20 minutes of race mojo in morning! We are doing this race for sole purpose of winning nice age group pottery awards as a gift for my mom!  

Nice brisk morning for a race ... luckily my legs responded a little better than they did in my runs all week.  Alex & I ran this for one reason .... to win nice age group awards as a gift for my mom ... mission accomplished!  The awards were hand crafted soapstone pottery dishes made in Kenya, as the race proceeds go to the battle of Kenyan children against Aids.  Really cool awards ... new profile pic!  :)

There was a 15 year old that went out like a rabbit ... and Alex started to follow ... I told him just keep him in sight, it was a long race, not a mile!  Alex half listened to me ... I think we were at about a 5:30 pace at the half mile ... where I told him again to take it easy (didn't want him to kill his old man!)  We hit the Mile Split at 5:52 ... about 10 yards behind the kid.

Mile 2 had some uphill (75'), and about halfway up the first hill, Alex pushed past him ... and I just tried to keep pace with Alex ... fortunately we had slowed down! Mile 2 was a 6:39 ... there was at least one other guy who was right on our heels & we were going to be in a battle for 3rd overall, as we were running 3,4,5.

Mile 3 had some up & down ... I was pushing hard at 2.5 on an uphill ... running side by side with Alex, as I could hear the footsteps & breathing of the guy behind us.  At this point, Alex started to fade a little, but he told me to push on.  I tried to encourage him to stay with me ... but he was hurting a little & wanted me to get 3rd, so insisted I go.  I kept pushing, but the guy stayed right on my heels ... Mile 3 was a 6:15.

With about a 1/4 mile to go, (a little earlier than I usually start a finishing kick) I decided it was time to try to bury the guy.  I ran the last 1/4 mile at a 5:22 pace.

I took 3rd by 12 seconds ... and Alex came in 5th with a 19:35 ... we both got 1st in Age Group.  It was a fun race ... and really cool technical shirts too.

PM - 48 minute recovery run