As a youth, I ran, yet I did not exist in a sense. 19 years passed. Today, I exist in one sense because I must run. Perhaps I run to escape the futility of my existence. Perhaps not. In either case, this blog, or whatever it is, will serve to chronicle my training as a runner, my development as a man, and ultimately my demise as a human, because all things pass, fade, retreat into the horizon--and while we run, as we run, the mirage that is the shimmering, glimmering future continues to assert itself just out of reach. And yet, as this picture up above connotes, it may still be beautiful. And so the question may be what is IT? What is it? What is IT?

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

10.25-10.31

10.25 10 Miles in 71 minutes. Per advice offered from Bob Wiles, I resisted the temptation to try and race the clock or anything like that. I need to learn that easy days are easy days. It is about getting the mileage in, not beating the clock!

10.26 6.5 miles in 45:19. I again ran easy and may take off tomorrow or only run 3 or 4 miles.

10.27 6 miles in 49 minutes. I am just taking it easy now and allowing my legs to recover, which is something I really must do as I taper for the half marathon. I am feeling stronger, but understand that I must recover from this point forward. I'll do a track workout this weekend and see where I am at, but I suspect I'll be much faster than I have been able to muster the last 6 weeks because I have just been beating my legs up.

10.28 I planned on taking today off, but stepping outside after work I had to go for a run. 5 easy miles in 42 minutes--then I worked out and lifted wieghts and did the eliptical for a hard 18 minutes. My legs feel good.

10.29 4.5 miles in 36:34. 15 minutes on the eliptical.

10.30 OFF

10.31 5 miles in 41:27. 20 Minutes on eliptical.

37 miles total

I am going with my gut and just going easy for this week. I think less is more for me. If I am going to be ready for 11.14, I need to be fresh.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

10.18-10.24

10.18 4 miles easy

10.19 7 miles at a comfortable pace. Splits were 6:54, 6:40, 6:43, 6:46, 6:37, 6;26, 6:27 (46:33).

10.20 8.5 miles on the roads around New Castle in 51:33. This was a sweet workout I think. I started out the first minute sort of jogging and then decided to do a hybrid tempo workout and picked the pace up and ran my first 1.25 miles in 6:58, jogged for .5 mile, ran 1.25 miles in 6:29 (mile in 5:11 and then a 78 quarter mile), jogged for .5 mile, then ran .5 mile in 2:33, then jogged for .5 mile, then ran .25 mile in 73, then jogged .12, then ran .25 mile in 72, then jogged for .25 mile, then ran .5 mile in 2:39 (Started feeling tired now), then jogged for .25 mile, then ran .25 mile in 76, then jogged .12, then ran .25 mile in 76, then jogged .5 mile, then ran 1 mile in 5:49 (I just wanted to break 6 minutes), then jogged .25 mile.

All in all, I think this was a pretty sweet workout--definitely some hills, which slowed me down on some of these splits---so I believe there was real value here.

10.21 6.5 miles on a treadmill at 4% incline. (46:50)

10.22 5 miles AM (35:54). 5.5 miles PM. 1.5 mile warm up. 2 800's with 400 meter jog recoveries. 2:27, 2:26. Then 2 400's with 200 meter recoveries at 69,69. 1.75 mile cool down.
Honestly--I have lost some speed and I know deep down my legs are still fried from all my training. But, I am going to push through and then taper the last 2 weeks before the seacoast half. In either case, I need to continue interjecting some speed into my workouts, because I felt the lactic acid building up big time in that second 800.
10.5 miles total for the day

10.23 5 miles am with 2 800's mixed in with a quarter mile rest in between at 2:35, 2:33. 3 miles pm 3 miles with some sprints mixed in at my son's cross country championship.

10.24 9 miles in 62:44.

53.5 miles total

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

10.11-10.17

10.11 4 miles in am in 33:34 with my son. 7 miles pm in 50:31. 11 miles total

10.12 6 miles easy in 43 minutes or so.

10.13 2.5 miles in 15:54. 1.25 mile cool down. This was a mellow workout done while I was waiting for my son's cross country race. 3.75 miles

10.14 I wont be running the Great Bay 5k because my son has his cross country championship that day--so I decided to do a mock half marathon today around new castle and I am very pleased with the results.

I ran 13.1 miles in 1:18:01! Under 6 minutes a mile and I totally felt in command and really not very winded at the end.

Here are my splits:
6:32, 6:08, 5:54, 5:56, 5:52, 5:53, 5:53, 5:53, 5:53, 5:55, 5:58, 5:54, 5:49, last .1 in 31 seconds.

I plan on running the Seacoast Half Marathon and believe I can go under 1:15, maybe lower.

I wont run today and will take it easier this weekend. They key is not to overdo things--that is how I am getting my legs back.

10.15 40 minutes on elliptical.

10.16 10.15 miles in 67:40. I started out at 7 minute pace and slowly picked it up. Easy run.

10.17 4 miles in 30 plus minutes (Recovery day)

48 miles total

Monday, October 4, 2010

10.4-10.10

10.4 6 miles in 46:58. On trails and still in Stowe. I am leaving Stowe later today (unfortunately).

10.5 5 miles total. 1 mile warm up. 2 by 400's with 200m recovery in 66, 67. 1 mile and then another 400 in 66. Then 2 miles with 4 100 meter strides all out in last mile.

Clearly, my legs are fried from the last 3 months of training. It is important i do some sort of speed training now, but I need to cut my distance in half for the next week or two to get my legs back. I am bummed, but I really trained very hard this summer without the proper base. Cardio-wise, I feel great--but my legs are just heavy as all hell all the time. After some research into this, I think I need to simply back off for right now.

10.6 5 miles easy--35 minutes

10.7 OFF

10.8 5 Miles am Easy. 6 Miles afternoon. I started out my first .25 mile in 1:41 and then just started to work my way down. I ended up running 4 miles in 22:41. I then did 400 200's with 200 recovery jogs at 28, 29, 30, 29 I cooled down 1 mile. My legs feel better!

10.9 OFF

10.10 14 miles in 1:32:20. This was under 6:40 pace and felt easy. My legs are obviously back.

41 total miles