Taper for New Haven Road Race

Labor day is the New Haven Road Race, a 20k race for which I've been 'training' for with awful feeling humid long runs with an occasional OK tempo run every now and then. This week I bagged anything difficult and went with 3 straight run/swim days (~2.5 miles of running split by ~700 yards of swimming, for a total equivalent of a 5 mile run). The swims felt great and hopefully my legs will feel well rested come Monday. All I can do now is eat pasta and wait.

11 Miles in Boston

Today I dragged out of bed at 5:30 am and attempted my second-to-last 'long' run before the NH 20K. My legs felt tired and my overall pace was a pokey 8:54 min/mile. Now I'm giving the tired legs a rest while sitting around listening to sparsely attended, yet interesting quantum chemistry talks before I 'preside' over a section this afternoon. Hopefully that won't entail much standing and sitting down.

First Boston Run

This morning I did my first nice tempo run in a while - a nice jaunt around the Charles. After a warm-up jog down from the hotel, I did a 4.5 tempo at a ~7:25 min/mile pace. Including getting a little lost on the way back to the Sheraton, the total mileage was over 7 miles. More importantly, it's encouraging that when the weather cools, I can still run moderately fast.

I have two more mornings during my stay for the Boston ACS meeting. Tomorrow, I'll probably do an 'easy' run, and Thursday morning I'll try my 12 mile race tune-up. Not looking forward to that...

9.75 Miles Into Work

This morning I did another long run - 9.75 miles into work. The pace was pretty good - considering the last 2 runs: 8:30 including frequent walk breaks. I kept it slow for the first 4 miles and then dropped it down for the next 4, and finally coasted in the last 1.5 miles.

Tempo 3

Finally a tempo run that felt like a tempo run. I did 3 miles at a 7:10 pace, then coasted in the final 0.8 miles for a total of 3.8 miles in 28:27 [7:29 overall]. This brings my 2 day total to 8 miles. I'll do the run in on Thursday.

Easy Run Today. Big Week Coming Up

Today, I did the 4.3 mile loop around work with Larry and Dave at an 8:26 min/mile pace. The pace felt pretty easy most of the way, although the humidity again made it difficult toward the end. I may try intervals/swim over the next two days - then a long run in on Thursday.

I'll also need a big week next week while I'm at the ACS. I'm thinking of doing a moderate tempo run on Tuesday, easy run Wednesday and a long run Thursday.

Tempo Number 2

Today I braved brutal humidity and uneven pacing to do my '2x3mile' tempo run. I'll spare myself the ugly details and just say I managed 3.3 and 2 mile tempos at an average pace of 7:55 - I would have been much happier with a straight-up 2x3mile at a more even pace. Oh well, I didn't die - that's always good. Oh yes, total mileage for the run was 7.44 miles including some slow-walking/running breaks.

13 Mile Run

Today, I ran 13 miles into work. It took 1 hour, 55 minutes and 13 seconds - and the time included many walk breaks. The overall pace was 8:51 min/mile. Weather was very humid and a little hot.

I was happy with the pacing. Instead of long/exhaustion-induced walks, I took more frequent but shorter walks, and I started doing this earlier in the run. Still, the run was very difficult and my legs are more sore now than I think they've ever felt. I kept thinking that I'm never going to break 8 min/miles for the NH 20k - but hopefully the weather will be a little more race-friendly. Yes, I still have some 'training' to go - but I've really cut-back on the overall mileage, and I may not add the speed work back in - at least not how I feel now.

My overall 'mileage' for the weak is 24 [updated to include 800 yard swim Saturday] miles. Next week I'm going to do the 2x3mile tempos - the next long run won't be until ~Aug. 16th or so.