2020 so far...

2020!  Yeah.  I know - it sucks so far.  I'm with you.  But it has been a lot easier to balance the work/family/running - since i've removed the commute and basically given back over an hour each day (probably more than that - since i don't even need to 'get ready' for work either).

Pre-pandemic - i had started to do the old PFE hill work.  This starts at 6x60s - right up eastern; and 8 weeks later - tops off at 2x(45;90;120) - which i finished on 3/23. This march also marked the first time i ever completed the Strava hill challenge - 2000 meters or something like 6000 feet in climbing.

After that I transitioned to speed work - which I started April 1st - a 2 mile tempo run. I love this workout because it is challenging - you can go fast - but easy to recover from. Unsurprisingly I did the first one not so fast: 6:58 pace. I then bumped up the tempos: 3M, 4M, 5M, 3M - slowly getting faster - and mixing in some 6x400s and 4x800s. Finally, one week ago - I did a mile: 5:54 out at Emerson - about when the adro mile is. I wasn't thrilled with that - so this week I did another 6x400 and 2M tempo: (6:33 min/mile this time!). And I'll try another mile next week. Not sure I can get 5:50 - but can't hurt to try.

2019 Recap

So I kind of quit this blog in 2018 - and then went on to have a very good year in 2019.  Thus I'm starting again. It started with my second professional job change in a span of just over 3 years - back to Cambridge.  Getting in good training seemed a little harder - but my foot was beginning to feel better.  I ran a spring fest in March - which went ok: 20:52 - 6:44 pace - a good half-minute over the Yulefest from 3 months earlier.

I was feeling real good at that point - but then either got sick or had allergies before the late April James Joyce 10K.  I ran it anyway for a 47:04 (7:35).  Once again - a good 10k eludes me - 47 years of life in.  Nevertheless - one month later I run a 20:18 (6:33) 5k - best of my life by 3 seconds - in May at the first race of the summer series.  It was an overcast and cool May day - perfect for running - and I just had a phenomenal race.  Unfortunately Coolrunning disappeared - and my GPS looks like i went for a swim in the Charles (good for a sub-6 mile 3).  I only have my personal log to record it.

The next race was the Adrian Martinez mile in early June.  I finished with the exact same time as the previous years - a little disappointing considering my newly minted 5k-pr.  Also dead last in my heat of 40-year olds.  Probably the only race I've ever placed last in.  The next 3 races were all summer-series 5ks along the Charles: 21:17 in July (i think i took a few weeks off before this one); 20:31 in August and another 20:18 pr-tie in September.  Running good

At this point I started training for a half-marathon in October.  My next 2 races were the Arlington Townday race - an odd 2.7 miler which i finished in 17:15 (6:23s) and a real hilly hot 10k race in Winchester which i struggled to 44:18 (7:09) - keeping up my 10k futility streak.

I then decided to take a second shot at a half by running one 2 weeks ahead of my scheduled race.  So i ended up running the bay state half on cool October morning.  Since i had another race coming up - I decided to head out fastish.  I ended up running the best half of my life: 1:33:58 - good 7:11 pace.  The course is pretty awesome - you do the same loop twice - something which I always find gives me confidence.  The only downside is I kinda lost some motivation for my 'real' half which I ran in 1:34:51 - 7:15s.  Not bad - but only good for 2nd best ever.  I then fell back into mediocrity to wind down the year: 6:54s gobble(3x) 5k; 6:58s (bill Rodgers 3.5) and then a 7:13 effort for the 5Mer 'super Sunday' this last February.  Neverthesless - a fantastic year - 5k and half PRs.  Time to start up the blog and attack another marathon.