A little while

Coming back from the flu took more than I anticipated. I am now about a week behind where I was hoping. Things are going better. The transition to nights has been a difficult one though and my sleeping is way messed up. That said I have had a good 10 block of training since my last post. Here is a quick run down.

1/20 16 miles with 20 minutes moderate at the end. I am thinking somewhere in the 6 min pace. Tough to judge being outside and in the dark with slick trails.

1/22 16 miles with 8 x 1 on 1 off. Pace was 5:20 down to 4:50. Didn't feel that sharp but getting better.

1/24 very cold out this morning. 15 outside easy then 1 up on the mill and 4 hard.5:49/5:39/5:26/5:13 to finish with 21 miles for the day. Not bad for the end of Jan.

1/26 4 x 3min uphill runs. Despite very poor sleep my legs felt ok on this one. Rest was jog back down.

Will attempt to post more as the weather gets better.

It's too late to complain...theres nothing you can do

Those words or something along those lines are exactly what my mom said on monday. So true. I had just spent 22 hours awake and had to stay up another few hours to spread my 3 boys all over the city. I ended up with a good day running that day. An easy twelve miles in the wind and snow around home depot and IBM. Those were the only plowed lots on that side of Rochester. At night and in those conditions it felt like I was running in a tunnel.

Tuesday I split into 2 runs. The am run was 9 miles in -45 degree windchill. Didn't feel all that cold. Relatively speaking. My PM run was 3-4 miles warm up with 8x8 sec short steep uphills. This is the second or third time doing these this season. I have done these for years after some urging from my dad and some reading from Renato Canova. The hills went well.

Wednesday --- Friday were terrible. I awoke wednesday to the flu and have carried it through to the present. So my weeks of uping my mileage will end here. This week is about getting my body back and monday I hopefully can start the process again. Glad this happened now and not in the middle or end of the season.

2009???? Back to Blogging

My last post was a oly trials wrap. Not my best race but not my worst. Funny that I begin over a year later with a new set of thoughts and feelings of the race and that time in my life. Jan 10. Last time I wrote I was sure I would be done running or at the very minimum only running for fun. Well since that time I spent the last year attempting to move past being a trials qualifier. I wanted to continue to improve. I also wanted to qualify again. Last season (08) was basically a waste. I consider three of my approx. 10 races to be ok. I ended my season enjoying running for what it is not enjoying racing. As I post this blog things have changed and I can oly hope at age 33 that I still have a few PRs left. I feel young and healthy and recovery after tough runs has been going well.

Today I ran 15 miles and then jumped on the t-mill for some faster running. I used this for a few years and I think it really helped. I have had 4 weeks in a row of 18-22 mile long runs so this wasn't my first run over 20. I ended with 4 miles at 6 min pace and 1 mile at 5:16. I was tired but felt in control and could have done more.

The season a head brings me great optimism. I am looking forward to a new training cycle. I am currently completing Brad Hudson's book and have found it to my liking. I am going to use this for my build up towards the Fargo marathon on May 9. My goal is to PR and I need every week from now until then to reach it.

I will post as much as possible, but I am not really sure how many people will see it or how many people care.