Week 5

Week five was pretty busy and it was hard to fit these runs in. But I made it and got in the mileage I needed even if I had to juggle a lot of things around.

Here's the rundown...

7/22: 4.0 miles - track * 9 and back (9:56 pace)
7/24: 4.0 miles - track * 9 and back (9:53 pace)
7/26: 2.0 miles - track and back (9:24 pace)
7/27: 6.0 miles - evanston lakefill, lakefront path, city streets to central and noyes (9:44 pace)
Total: 16.0 (goal 16)

Week 4

Week four was a good one, ending with a nice 5 1/2 mile run in Boston! I can't tell you how much I love running in this city. The lakefront path in Chicago is nice, but it's nothing compared to the Charles River path in Boston! It was hot out though, and halfway through I ducked into MIT for some water. And then out and across the bridge to return to brookline. (The Smoot Marks really need repainting!)

So here's the rundown...

7/15: 3.5 miles - track * 7 and back (9:47 pace)
7/16: 2.0 miles - track and back (9:24 pace)
7/17: 3.5 miles - track * 7 and back (10:00 pace)
7/19: 5.5 miles - brookline streets and Harvard/BU bridge loop (9:43 pace)
Total: 14.5 (goal 14)

Week 3

Week 3 was nice and included a 5K PR! Here's the rundown...

7/7: 3.51 miles - route 14 loop (9:48 pace)
7/9: 2.01 miles - track and back (9:25 pace)
7/10: 3.1 miles - bastille day 5k (8:26 pace)
7/13: 5.62 miles - lakefront trail (9:45 pace)
Total: 14.34 (goal 14)

Bastille Day 5k

Last night was the Bastille Day 5k. The sole reason I signed up for the race was that I had tied my previous 5K PR at Race to Taste and I knew I could beat it. Unfortunately, it was raining all afternoon yesterday and I was having serious doubts if I'd be able to make a PR in a downpouring thunderstorm. I jumped on the train downtown in all the rain, and magically when we pulled into the station downtown the sky to the west was bright and sunny! The race started (to French music!) in beautiful weather and I was feeling great.

The first 1/2 mile or so was a little rough since a bunch of packs of very slow running 20-something girls had decided to start at the very front of the pack and were running 5-wide down Jackson St. After getting through that, it opened up and really was not too crowded of a run. For those not familiar with the course, it's a dumbbell shape with lots of turns every few blocks. Thankfully I never really got in too many bunches of runners and was able to make it through. At mile 1, I was just about on pace to break my PR and I was feeling great, so I decided to kick it up a little bit and just give it what I had in me. I approached mile 2 a bit winded, but generally feeling good. Unfortunately, the clock at mile 2 was a bit off (reading 4 hours and 13 minutes). I knew I wasn't running a marathon, but had no idea how fast I was actually going. I continued at probably an even quicker speed towards the end. As I turned one of the final corners with about 1/4 mile to go there was a giant bolt of lighting a few blocks away and the sky just opened up with rain. I stepped it up a little faster and saw the 3 mile clock at 25:30. That surprised me a bit and I started running even faster!

In the end, I crossed the finish with a chip time of 26:11 (8:26 pace) which was almost a full minute off my previous PR from the Taste. As I got my bagel, banana, and Gatorade the rain really started coming down hard...in torrential downpour fashion. It seems that all of the people handing out food and beverage had gone home and we had to pick them up ourselves. I went over to gear check to find all of our bags in the street covered in water and muck from the backed up sewers. Fun.

All in all though, it was an awesome race and I'm quite happy with my time. I just wish it would have been nicer at the end for the post race block party with french music, wine, and lots of friends who ran the race. I ended up just getting a ride with a friend home and trying to stay warm and dry after being soaked through for a good 1/2 hour after the race trying to find my bag.

By the way, throwing my time into McMillan gives me a 4:15:15 marathon...which would be awesome!!

Week 2

Week 2 of training came along just as nicely as week 1 did. So far so good! Here's the rundown...

7/1: 3.01 miles - route 14 loop (10:08 pace)
7/3: 2.01 miles - track and back (9:47 pace)
7/4: 3.01 miles - route 14 loop (9:41 pace)
7/6: 4.01 miles - red trail at moraine hills (9:33 pace)
Total: 12.03 (goal 12)

Week 1

Week one of 1/2 marathon training was fairly easy going. It just called for a 3-2-3-4 which I modified a bit since I had Race to Taste on the weekend day. Race to taste was fun and I tied my PR which was somewhat unexpected as I'm far less trained right now than I was when I set that in 2006 smack in the middle of marathon training!

So here's how it all worked out...

6/23: 3.12 miles - route 14 loop (9:45 pace)
6/24: 2.0 miles - track and back (9:26 pace)
6/27: 3.08 miles - route 14 loop (10:13 pace)
6/29: 3.1 miles - race to taste 5k (8:44 pace)
Total: 11.28 (goal 12)

Running is back!

Sorry for the long absence here. I'm back in the training cycle again and I'll be using this site to log runs and discuss races this year. I've already missed a bunch, so I'll use the next few posts to catch up.

So what am I training for? My '08 race schedule looks something like this:
march - shamrock shuffle 8k
june - race to taste 5k
july - bastille day 5k
august - nike human race 10k
september - banco popular 1/2 marathon
october - tower of terror 13k (maybe)
january - disney marathon

Welcome back and enjoy another summer of running!