May Day Hills

I worked from home today - then managed to head over to Haley Farm/Bluff Point.  It was so beautiful and vivid out after the rain that I decided on the 'long' loop - but once I hit a nice hill I went ahead and did the hill workout: (60;75;90)x2 - it actually felt easier on the rough hill - probably because the footing makes it impossible to go as fast as on a paved hill.  After the hill - I worked my way back to the Haley Farm parking lot.  Total run - 1 hour 9 minutes.  Probably about 8 miles.

Feels Like Training Again.

It took awhile - but I'm starting to finally build up a base. Last week I did: 5, 7.4 and 5 mile runs - including a great run out at Bluff Point/Haley Farm. The other runs were pretty slow. Monday I did 5 again and yesterday I did the hill workout: 45;60;45;75;45;60;45 - 'learn to use your times run'.

I have today off, then I'll do an easy 3-4 Thursday and 9-10 on Friday.

Race: Twilight Trail Run 2010

Last night was my 5th consecutive Twilight Trail Run. I had some concerns leading into the race: sore legs from a track workout on Wednesday and an upset stomach. I had thought the track work would've been easy: 8x150 meters - which I did in ~24-30 seconds. It felt fast for me but a 30 second 150 is only a 5:20 min/mile pace. My right groin felt very tight after the run, and into Thursday - and still tight on Friday. I felt it during the race, but it never went *pang* on me. The race itself felt great. I managed to keep up a pretty decent pace the entire race. I think I have the course down pretty well - a little easy going up the hills and then run the flat parts - which there are a lot of - very hard. I ended up at 53:48 - a 7:16 pace - 4 seconds off of my best time from 2 years ago. Great raffle, organization - very good race. I also woke up today weighting 152.6 - my lowest in years. I certainly have met my goal of dropping weight and feeling stronger.

Week 7 Easy Miles

I rounded out this weeks mileage with some easy medium distance runs: 6 miles on Thursday by myself at work and 7 miles around Bluff Point yesterday - both at about a slow 9 min/mile pace. Neither run felt particularly good and I'm a little worried about my speed heading into tomorrow's 5K race. So Ihave 25 miles on my only 'off' week - with another 5 coming tomorrow.

The Tough Part...

...is over! Yesterday I capped my Tarzan Brown training with my final set of intervals: 5x2000s (or, since I wasn't running on the track, 5x8:30s) on a run from my work in Groton, to my home in Mystic. I did the Mumford's Cove route, to add a little extra flat distance, since I didn't want to be doing an interval over the Brooke Street hill. The workout, like those before it, was difficult - but I think it actually felt better than the 2 previous ones. Maybe I'm pacing a little better, or running a little slower, or just getting a little stronger. Total mileage for the workout was 9.7 miles, which took 1 hour, 24 minutes (including breaks between intervals, which were 4:30).

This morning I biked the route back - but did the Brook Street hill - about 9 miles in 5o minutes, including some walking to let the blood back into my frost-bit feet. The ride felt good, but cold - I'm glad to be all warmed up now.

Mileage for the week was 18.75 miles running, plus 5.85 miles of cross training: 24.6 total. My largest in a while. Moreover, the week encompassed a little of everything: swim, bike, trail run, tempo run, intervals and long run. Next week I can take pretty easy - although I may hit a track for some 18x200s, or something - just to keep the legs use to moving fast.

Long Run Home

Today I left work a little early and ran home. The run covered 9 miles and I did it in 1 hour, 9 minutes and 20 seconds - an astounding 8 minutes faster than a few weeks ago. The weather had a lot to do with that - as it was a beautiful sunny/cool/dry afternoon. I decided to run a little hard 2x2 miles, so I started with ~1 mile warm-up at an even pace, then did 15 minutes faster, slowed for 10 minutes, then did 14 minutes fast. I then had an uphill (Brooke Street) for about four minutes - then did another 1/2 mile (4 minutes) fast, before hitting the Fishtown hill (3 more slow up-hill minutes) before finishing with another fast 8 minutes. I think I did ~5.85 miles fast at about a 7:10-7:15 pace, and another 27 minutes (~3.15 miles) at a slower (8:3oish) pace. All told, a pretty satisfying workout - since I *needed* the long run - but also wanted to mix in some faster tempo-type stuff before these shorter races come up.

Trail Run

I couldn't go out today at lunch, so I did ~4.5 miles at Bluff Point after work. Total run was a little over 36 minutes. It felt good. I could've went longer, but I have hills tomorrow and I didn't want to burn out.