One more try...

Monday am, 8.8 miles in 1:11

I was sick as a dog for 1 day a couple of weeks ago; I've been basically healthy since then except that I've felt like crap in the mornings, congested with a sore throat. Probably sometime last week I could have started running in the mornings again, but sickness led to laziness, and all I squeezed in was an easy 3 miles one night. I finally resolved to start fresh this week, and was out the door by 6.

The run wasn't particularly notable, but I was shocked to find that in just 2 short weeks it is suddenly light outside when I leave in the morning. I felt hella stiff and sore the rest of the day, but I think it's more due to last night's bike ride with clipless pedals while towing Silas in his trailer. More interesting to me right now, though, is trying to evaluate where I am for Broad St. I had planned to compare this year's training with 2006, when I ran a 1:02 for the 10 mile race:

February 2006, 171 miles
February 2008, 144 miles
March 2006, 161 miles
March 2008, 165 miles
April 2006 (through 4/21), 121 miles
April 2008 (through 4/21), 42 miles

D'oh. I had a pretty good thing going there. I've also had only one track workout this spring. Although my 800 times compared favorably to what I was getting in 2006, I haven't built on it at all. This close to BSR 2008, I can't really hope to gain any fitness, so my plan will just be to put in miles this week, but not too many, to remind myself that I can do it. A little bit of speedwork will help me recognize the signals that my legs are sending me as well. My goal for the race at this point is to run under 65 minutes.

Of course, I ran that last Broad St. coming off a big 54 mile week...

Sick.

36 miles in the week ending April 6th. I haven't run since (except for about 100 races with Silas, in the backyard, in the Monkey Room, at the park, and on the sidewalk!). I'll be back on the road the first morning that I don't have to spend my time expectorating into the sink.

Currying favor with Nike

Last week: 53 miles
Monday: 6 miles
Tuesday: 4x800, 400 recovery, 6.25 total

Feel like you're stuck in a rut? Looking to spice up your running life?
A day at the track may be just what the doctor ordered!

I had a solid week of running last week, but stiffness in my right calf
kept the pace easy. Afer finally getting above 50 miles for the week,
I'm going to cut back a little bit and include some speed in the next
few weeks as Broad Street approaches. Today was going to be a 7 mile
tempo run, but as I got out of bed I was itching for a little more speed.
I hadn't been to the track in 9 months, and I decided to swap Friday's
planned workout for today's.

I shuffled out the door just before 6 and made my way down Grant St
toward the dirt track at MLK middle school, 1.75 miles away. I was
still feeling a bit of lameness in my calf, but dutiful icing has kept
it at bay, and I wasn't worried about hurting myself. The quads were a
bit stiff as well from some hard downhill running on Sunday. I wasn't
sure what was going to happen at the track, but the plan was 4x800,
trying for negative splits on each pair of laps, at about 3k-5k pace. In
other words, something like 1:32-1:28 to hit 3 minutes per 800.

At the track, there were a few walkers and joggers doing laps in the
dark. I found a water spot on the ground to use as a start/stop and
took off.

Coming through the first lap, I tried to look at my watch but missed the
light. It was too dark to see, so I just kept doing what I was doing
with no real idea of how fast I was going. I came through the second
lap and checked the watch: 2:45. OK, the plan was out the window. The
next three went down in 2:48-2:49-2:52, with slow 400s in between. I
actually did manage the negative splits on the last 2, by 5 and 2
seconds respectively. I'm pretty happy with the speed, and it will give
me something to work with over the next couple of weeks as I sharpen up
for BSR. Maybe next week I'll actually know what I'm doing.