Once in a fortnight...

or i guess it's been a fortnight and a half since I last posted.  12 week training plan for Boston starts this upcoming week and I've been trying to slowly ramp up the mileage.  I did 40 miles three weeks ago, 44 miles two weeks ago but i kinda fell off the wagon this past week where I only got a 10 miler in during the week and a 15 mile long run on Sunday. 

Most of mileage to date has been of the slow base building type. I had hoped to try and do about 7 miles of my Sunday long run at a marathon pace effort to throw some speed back into the mix.  Drove down to the lake to do it which is the first time I've been down there in a long while.  Ran into Yumke during my slow warmup and stopped to chat for a bit.  Tried to crank out some marathon pace effort but i just wasn't feeling so great.  I did manage one mile at 7:45 min/mile pace and had hoped to continue this for a few more miles, but when i hit the turnaround point, the headwind was just too much and i had to slow down.  Still the overall pace for the 15 miles was 8:45 min/mile which was about 30 seconds/mile faster than i've been doing all my other runs for the past few weeks so I'm satisfied with the effort. 

We've been somewhat blessed this year with winter, or lack thereof.  There hasn't been too much snow and the weather has been relatively mild lately.  That's apparently going to change this upcoming week, but being able to get through January without too much snow has been nice which means I haven't had a need to signup for a gym membership.  Here's to hoping that February is just as nice. 

January: Go get the donut

Got up at 4:45 this morning to get a 10 mile run in. This is the earliest I had ever gotten up to get a run in. This was also the first hard core run I've had this season. I bailed on a 12 mile long run on Sunday outside. It was too cold and windy and it was snowing and ended up doing at the gym.

There's something peaceful about running in the dark with no one around on a thin layer of freshly fallen snow. Though I had to work a bit harder cause of the snow, i managed to get through it at about 9:35 pace which i think is pretty good considering the blood donation last week.

I think however that this is about my limit for waking up early. I once got up at 5:15 once to get a 15 miler in and thankfully the 12 week training plan I'll be using tops out at only 12 miles for mid-week runs. I should hopefully speed up by then such that I won't have to wake up so early to squeeze the whole distance in.

Last year, I purchased a running calendar in February or March for 2009. It's amazing how cheap calendars get after January. I think I paid $2 for it. It's a running calendar with a little saying on each month with a running related picture. Here's the one for January:

 Go get that donut!!

2009 Year in Review

Another training year comes to a close and looking back I topped out at 1891.1 miles which is the highest yearly total ever.  I came to this realization on January 30 and had considered trying to squeeze in an extra 8.9 miles on the 31st just to get me over 1900 for the year but decided against it.  I had an appointment to donate blood on the 31st which I had postponed from a few weeks earlier because I had thought i was coming down with something.  I had not given at all in 2009 and thought i should get at least one donation in for the calendar year. 

So 2009 will always be about Boston and the first time running it.  Actually there were a couple of marathon firsts for me this year, first time pacing a marathon, first time doing three in a calendar year.  Along the way, i did a bunch of races, but i think i only raced a handful.  For 2010, i'm going to try to not enter races unless I'm actually going to race them.  The one exception is Big Sur which is 6 days after Boston so i'll probably not be in any shape to do that fast.

As for what races I'll do this year.  There's Boston and Big Sur.  I'll probably do Harry's 8k cause it fits in nicely for a tune-up race for Boston.  I will apply for the lottery again for New York hoping to not get in.   I have not decided if I want to do a fall marathon if i don't get into NY.  I was looking at Berlin which I'd like to do one day as it's one of the five marathon majors, but i'm thinking that should wait until after i get a handle of when i'm doing New York.  I will probably be applying for the lottery for London in 2011 or even go the tour route which guarantees entry.  I also want to take another shot at the 100 pushup challenge which i started a while back but gave up on after a week

That's all i have planned at the moment or what I'm thinking about right now.  Here's to a happy, safe and injury free 2010.  Happy Running all!