Can't Go a Year Without Posting

I can't claim to have a bog and go more than a year without posting...  First official Michelob Ultra Race this weekend in Tulsa at the Route 66 1/2 marathon.  Got after it this 3-day weekend.

Saturday - 5 easy
Sunday - 10 miles in 65 min
Monday - 2 mi w/up, 2 x 10 min hard, 5 min rest, 2 mi cool down.

Hello Treadmill

Two days in a row on the hamster wheel and not yet sick of it! I'm thinking I should have done the indoor uphill interval training before the New York Marathon.  When I have time I'll blog about it.

Thanks to Hepstrack.com for their Ivy League Championships revival, I now have a YouTube channel.

Last long tempo

11 miles, 64 minutes

5:55, 5:52, 5:57, 5:56, 5:55, 5:57, 5:54, 5:57, 5:37, 5:35, 5:34

1 mile w/up, 2 mile cool down

14 total.

Very controlled.

Running Off Memphis

Great times in Memphis last weekend, but that didn't translate to much running.  Aside from a little five mile jaunt on Friday, I didn't run at all this weekend.  What I lacked in running I made up for in seafood gumbo and southern bbq.  So while I had a long run blocked off for today, I was feeling a little "heavier" when I got going.

Goal for today was 20 miles, and I only ended up going about 18.5 in 2:03 (about 6:29 average).  My hip flexors were a little tight, and my right heel and calf still has something going on so I didn't want to push it too much.  I finally made it to the North end of the Lakeshore path though, and I ran off my Memphis lbs.

19 miles...

Thought I'd be sore yesterday after my 10k, but I guess I wasn't THAT sore.  Goal yesterday was to run 18 miles or minimum 2 hours, depending on how I felt, and the weather was perfect for it - 55 and light rain.  Since it felt so easy, and the pace kept escalating, I ended up going 19 in 2 hours (average about 6:21 per mile.  I thought the Garmin output was pretty cool, so I'm pasting that in instead of blogging more.

Chicago Race for the Cure

Despite losing my voice I woke up this morning for the Chicago Race for the Cure 10k.  No one really showed up, but didn't matter, I just wanted to use this as a tempo run and make-up for a piss-poor showing at the Chicago Half two weeks ago. Much better showing this time--I won the race in 35:05, ran near perfectly even mile splits (5:38, 5:39, 5:39, 5:45, 5:35, 5:39, 75), and felt pretty comfortable the whole way. Starting really long runs tomorrow, hopefully 18, and 6 weeks til race day.

Wanted to get back in great shape in my 5 weeks off between work and school.  Not in great shape yet but getting there.  Last five weeks mileage as follows: 40, 14, 52, 37, 52, 61... not bad and dropped 10 pounds in the process.

Easy with Company

Finally got off work in time to catch the Central Park Track Club track workout at the East River Track.  I assumed there would be a few guys there who could run fast, and I was right enough.  It's just over 2 miles from my apartment to the track, so that made for a nice warm up.  The four doughnut holes at 4pm didn't help, but oh well, there's a bathroom at the track.

Today's workout was 4x1000, 3x300 at the track, with 400m recovery (2:30ish).  I kept the trainers on because I'm a bit fat and slow right now, and really, what's the point except to get a good workout in.  To my surprise, I was able to run 3:05 (4:56 pace) very comfortably for the first 3 reps, then went down to 3:02 for the last one.  Who knew.  My 300's were 52, 49, 49, which isn't bad considering I haven't run fast for a while.  The more obvious realization, was that I run much better when I have other people to help pace me, and sure enough, by the 2nd half of the workout, I got competitive and started running faster.  Total for the day was 9 quality miles, first time in a long time.