I don't feel 100% fresh, but it's getting better everyday, and I certainly do feel strong. I think the payout for my training will be huge. Anxious to crush early in my training, the patience over the past many weeks has amounted to a large balance deposited into the United Bank of Endurance and the United Bank of Speed. Now, if I could just have a large balance in my personal savings account. Cha-ching!
Monday: Not a very long run after the 20 miler on Sunday, but a 60 minute run broken into 45 minutes normal and 15 minutes at 6:20 pace run from mile 4 through 8 on the course. I had trouble on the 2nd mile of the pick-up, got so beat that I slowed and said "It isn't worth this." After a minute, it occurred to me that it was going to feel a lot worse at mile 24'ish so I ran the last 0.35 miles at 5:48 pace and almost averaged goal pace despite the minute slow down. The 15 minutes hard portion covered 2.35 miles for 6:23 pace. 8.13 miles.
Tuesday: A very easy run at both Heritage State Park and West Hill Dam for some relaxing trail running. 9 miles.
Wednesday: I went down to the Blackstone River Bikeway in RI since I had rehearsal in Cumberland anyway. Great place to run. Did another 5 x 1 mile with 1/3 mile recovery. Goal pace was 6:20, and Got them all under with 6:13, 6:11, 6:19, 6:12, 6:12. I felt really good during the warm-up, and a little beat again after the workout portion. 10 miles.
Thursday: I did not get to this run until after 9pm when the snow was coming down. This time I ran on the Millbury/Worcester portion of the bikeway - there are still about 25 incomplete miles in between there and the RI portion of the bikeway. Hopefully someday it will be complete. It would be amazing to have a bikeway connecting Worcester and Providence. At any rate, I ran this very easy for two reasons: yesterday's workout and the conditions. 9 miles.
Friday: I had 4 x 5 minutes for Friday, so I started at the starting line in Hopkinton. I ran an easy 2 miles before running my first rep. I generally covered about 0.8 miles per each 5 minute rep. The 2nd and 3rd reps briefly forced me onto cross streets thanks to red lights. It actually was not a pleasant workout and I was probably a little spent from the other two workouts this week. 9 miles.
Saturday: Never got to this run until after dark. I could have earlier, but I just wasn't up for it. I ran 4 loops on my mile L-Loop before getting bored of that and running a bigger loop slightly longer than 4 miles. Wore the reflective vest. Did not get honked at. Surprising for Haverhill, but even when I do get honked at, I wave and assume that they know me. 8.1 miles.
Sunday: I met Matt for the weekly long run out of NECC at 7am. This was a great run. We started out with an easy 8:13 and a 7:50 before getting into a nice cruising rhythm on the big West Newbury loop with the River Rd extension. The splits were 8:13, 7:50, 7:21, 7:15, 7:13, 7:04, 7:08, 7:25, 7:09, 7:12, 7:10, 7:09, 7:18, 7:13, 7:17, 7:14, 6:55. Got back to home base at 15.5 and then added on 6 laps on the track. It was nice to be strong at the end. The legs were a little sore, but ever since New Bedford, my confidence gets bigger and bigger. No matter how confident I get, I will always respect the race and course. Dreams have come true, but dreams have died just the same and Newton makes or breaks it. Averaged 7:18 overall for the run. 17 miles.
Week: 70.23
March: 276.77
2011: 820.79
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