Kicking off 2008!

Wow! I have no idea where January went. As of New Year's Eve, I was still battling through some minor left knee pain but I'm happy to report that it has subsided. I don't know if it was residual pain from Philly or minor trauma from playing basketball, but the lower relative mileage seems to have done the trick and I'm running pain free again. The other hiccup in my training has been the IT catastrophe with regards to coolrunning.com's running log transition to active trainer. I didn't have the patience to see if Active would program in all the original features from coolrunning, so I've followed some of the running log refugees over to running2win.com. The interface is not as smooth as coolrunning's, but I'm happy that my running log has found a new home.

Here's a summary of my workouts from the last two weeks (1/7-20)





Mon: 30 min. on the elliptical, then 30 min. core workout.
Tue: 9.7 miles, including 1 mile (5:52), 2 mile (11:45), 1 mile (5:40) interval workout
Wed: 30 min. on the elliptical followed by 30 min. core work
Thu: 8.2 miles @ 7:38, running home from work
Fri: off
Sat: 5 mile @ 11:48, easy trail recovery run with Chris, slowed by darkness and poor footing
Sun: 16.2 miles @ 7:28, great long run along the Boston course, was pushed by some other runners
Total: 39.1 miles

Mon: 30 min. pool run & 30 min. core work
Tue: 10.5 miles, including 3 x (800, 400, 800) @ 5:25; started conservatively, but then really hammered the last set, including 2:32 final 800.
Wed: 30 min. pool run/swim & 30 min. core work; tough swim, don't know how triathletes do it
Thu: 6.1 miles, including Khoury's 4.13 in 25:36 (6:11 mile), 2nd place overall!
Fri: off
Sat: skiing in Sunday River
Sun: 9.7 mile @ 8:27, ridiculously hilly route, 800 ft elevation gain in 2 miles!
Total: 26.3 miles

I'm pretty happy with my fitness level at this point, despite not having much of a base over the last 6 weeks or so. I have been surprised by my last two interval workouts, especially with how I've been able to gradually pick up the pace over the course of the workout and finish at a very fast pace. Right now, I'm just trying to establish a good rhythm during the intervals, and this strategy seems to be working as opposed to trying to hit a certain time.

The 16 miler last Sunday was also a pleasant surprise. I met up with the Tufts President's Marathon Challenge (PMC) team for the long run and hooked up with two guys that were planning on running a 7-8 minute pace. I said I was aiming for around a 7:30 and they seemed happy to oblige. Only later did I find out that they had marathon PRs of 3:36 & 3:40. Now I hope my next comment doesn't come off as elitist, because I used to make this mistake too, but these guys had no business running that fast on a long run. I wanted to say something to them, but I didn't know how to put it with out coming off harsh, so I just kept the conversation cordial. To be honest, it was nice having the company. One guy even put on a surge shortly after Coolidge Corner on the way back to Boston, but hit the wall shortly after that. The other guy was completely gassed at the end. In fact, he was a faithful follower of the Galloway run/walk regimen, and this was his first continuous effort on a long run. I really have to applaud their effort, because I don't think I could do my marathon pace for a full 16 miles. I just hope these guys aren't putting in this effort level every weekend.

Finally, the last highlight I'd like to report was a spontaneous decision to use the Khoury's 4.13 as a tempo run. This is a fun little neighborhood weekly race put on by the SRR folks and its a great way to get in a hilly tempo run with company. I first did this run about 3 years ago and I had difficulties maintaining a 7 min. mile, so it would be interesting see my progress. I met up with my buddy Anuj from Boston Fit and we did short warm-up jog. At the start, no one seemed to want to take the lead, so shortly after hitting the first and only major hill, I made a move to the front. I was alone until cresting the hill, when a tallish runner with a very smooth stride just blew by me. It occurred to me on the downhill that this might Joe O'Leary, the local speedster and clearly a different class of runner. I tried to stay within striking distance, mostly just so I wouldn't get lost on the dark streets. I found the pace was comfortably hard, not race pace, but I wasn't mentally committed to challenge Joe. The remainder of the "race" was without drama; I pulled into the finish line 17 seconds behind Joe and felt pretty good. Its another welcome sign that a 6:11 mile is tempo pace: HR numbers were 165/179. Here are the results... settling for a 2nd again behind another clearly superior run!

I'm really looking forward to this week with a solid test effort coming up at Boston Prep. It will also mark the one year anniversary of this blog, since my first entry was a race report from last year's Boston Prep 16. Very cool! I'm still trying to settle on a race strategy, but I'm thinking right now I'm going to start at a 6:45-6:50 pace and hold that until the hill at mile 12, and then see what I have left. This is definitely not a course that you start aggressively on.

Plan for next week
Mon: off
Tue: 8 miles, normal training run
Wed: 30 min pool run & 30 min. core work
Thu: 10 miles, training run with some hills
Fri: off
Sat: 5-6 miles easy
Sun: 18 miles, including 16 for the Boston Prep 16 miler
Total: 40-42 miles