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.

Nice Drizzly Spring Run

Weather wise - one of the better runs in the last few months - just below 50, drizzly and I felt pretty good. I still took this one easy: 41:30 for a 5 miler (8:18 pace). I may try and squeeze the hills in by myself tomorrow morning - since I'll miss the team's hills at lunch tomorrow.

Week 6 Training

I've re-arranged my training schedule a little to (1) accomodate the CVS 5k next Sunday and (2) get a better long run in after last week's fiasco. However, I didn't want to bump up mileage much, so I decided to only go 4 days: Monday [7-miler], Wednesday [6-miler], Friday [16-miler] and Sunday [6-miler] - that'll give me 35 miles for the week.

Monday's run was great. The day before I did the Brooke St./Noank run with the kids and it took an hour and 8 minutes. Without the kids it only took 56 minutes and felt great.

Wednesday was pretty good - I went at lunch with Larry, Les and Dave R. We did the Avery loop before Larry and I veered-off and did the 'bitch' hill for some extra mileage. I felt strong, although the new Asics 2140 continue to cause me problems: not so much the arch blister in the left foot, but rather achillies pain in the right foot. What the hell happened to Asics? I'll probably have to cough up another $100 and get a new pair of Adrenlines soon.

Yesterday was raining and I had wicked jock itch (don't laugh - it sucks), so I decided against running home and instead decided to do 5 x 3 mile laps at work. The first 4 laps were just down the river toward Eastern point and then over to Jupiter, back across Tyler - slightly over 3 miles. The last lap I did the Eastern point beech parking lot and skipped the 1/2 mile Jupiter loop. I did the first 2 loops in about 27 minutes each: plus the 6 minutes to get clear of Pfizer and I was already over one hour. I was feeling good, so I pushed the next two loops to 26 minutes/3 mile pace - still pretty slow, but I was now pushing 2 hours. The last lap I treated as more a of cool down and poked back through the gate at work in 2 hours, 23 minutes - over 16.3 miles - a sub-nine pace. I realize I shouldn't be pushing on the long runs - but it's hard to go that slow for that long.

Sunday I'll be doing a quick 6 miler. Next week should be more fun - no long runs! I have a 3x1 mile interval run planned with Larry on Monday. Then I'll need to do 6 at lunch each day Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Then next Sunday is the CVS 5k up in Providence. I'd like to do the 3x1s in about 7:10-7:15 pace - maybe going faster on the last one - so hopefully the CVS run won't be a complete disaster due to lack of speed work.

Rainy Run

Made it out earlier today for a rainy day run. The weather was actually perfect - light rain and pretty cool the whole way through. I managed the same 4.75 mile loop I did Monday in the exact same time 36:30 - although it felt like a much harder effort. My legs feel sore - probably in large part to yesterday's bike. I'm hoping they'll feel better tomorrow.

Weather in Connecticut

It certainly isn't getting easier finding nice days to run/bike. I biked home yesterday for the first time on my new Trek, and I'll be biking in soon. I'll probably run today at lunch as well - but Thursday? Not sure about Thursday or Friday...

Update: biked in - 44:30 vs. 45:00 yesterday - but I did ~10 home yesterday and ~9 in today - so faster going than coming. Also ran 5.3 today at lunch. Weather was great, but the legs were sore from the bike. Nevertheless - a pretty good day.

Saturday's the Tour 'd Noank - a difficult hilly race that I normally avoid - but it's close to my house and Larry may run. We'll see.

Spring Run

A perfect day for running here in SouthEastern Connecticut. Temps in the high 40's, no wind and a light rain/mist to keep you nice and cool. I went with the fast Dave again - about 5.2 miles in 41 minutes - the normal route with both Avery and Jupiter loops. Tonight I have the swim class - should have a pretty good week when all is said and done.

Grey Running

Completely slate grey and a little colder out today. The temps were in the low 40's with some wind especially down around the water. I did the normal loop with Jupiter (no Avery) - about 4.3 miles. Felt fast - but the pace wasn't very good. I'll probably skip tomorrow and do a run/swim on Wednesday. Then try and get the 5K in on Saturday before starting the real training next week.

Twilight Trail Run 2008.

Last night was the Twilight Trail Run out at Bluff Point State Park. As it has the last 3 year, it rained on and off the whole night. Despite the rain, the weather was almost perfect for running - temps in the low 50's and breezy, but not windy. I felt very good early and pushed the pace more than I planned, since after a little bit I felt as though I could get a pretty good time. Racing without my lost GPS probably helped. I kept the leg turnover going, but tried to pull up a little until I had made it around the Bluff Point loop, then I made a push along the Amtrak rail line and around Haley Farm. At that point I knew I was probably running a good time. I ended up strong, but exhausted: 53:45 good for a 7:15 pace - much better than the previous years.

I then hung out for about an hour for waiting for the raffle drawing. I never stayed around for the raffle - just about everyone won something - I won $50 dollars of car washes. So if you live in the area and need a car wash, let me know. I wrapped-up the night getting some rice-spice and noodle 'drunken noodles' and a mic-ultra (I forgot to throw the Cottrell in the fridge).

Not that they read the blog, but I'd like to thank the race organizers, the many massage volunteers and the ham radio geeks. And of course, I'd like to thank my wife for the support and the night off.

Today, I got up at 6:30 with the kids, and feel a little sore, but not too bad. My total mileage for the week tops out at 23.5 miles (liberally including my walk and swim). I have one more week with hill training, then a few track weeks before the JP Morgan Chase run. I'm feeling pretty good about heading into that, since my first 2 runs this year have went very well. I'm pretty convinced that bumping up my weekly mileage and sticking with a weekly long run has really helped.