Quick Update

Yesterday morning Nate, Bromka and I ran our 8 mile Brookline loop. I thoughy my legs would be a lot more tired from the workout than they were. Today Nate, Rosen and I ran Jamaica Pond... 9 miles, nice and slow. I totalled 69 miles this past week which is good. Plan is to get another long one in tomorrow (15 or 16?), workout mid-week, and potentially race on Saturday at the first Tufts home meet.

I've got to send a huge shout out to the Saratoga Boys High School distance runners... not only are they the best cross country team in the nation after having won Nike Team Nationals (see below), but three of them just ran really solid mile times (all faster than I've ever run...).

1* Brian Rhodes-Devey 4:13.19 Guilderland 1
2 Greg Kiley 4:15.12 Saratoga Springs 2
3 Charles White 4:16.02 Garden City 3
4 Alex Bean 4:16.32 Somers 4
5 Steve Murdock 4:16.83 Saratoga Springs 5
6 Greg Kelsey 4:17.59 Saratoga Springs

Great work. It's cool to see the team running so well.... they'll have a pretty sick 4 by mile.

Workout

Nate and I ran a workout at MIT tonight. Since we couldn't get into Tufts last time, and didn't expect to tonight, we decided MIT was a better choice (it's also about a quarter mile from where we live). We got started at about 6:30 or so... made our way over to the track, dropped off our bags and started our warmup. After 3 miles on the Charles and changing into our workout shoes, we were ready to roll. Unfortunately, the Cambridge Running Club was running a workout at the same time. This basically turned the track into a 3 ring circus. Now, having run a lot of workouts with a lot of kids at the same time, both at Saratoga and at Tufts, I'm pretty used to doing intervals when the track is busy. This time was just sort of silly though. Nate and I were running 800s in 2:20, and there were groups running in the first two lanes at like 6 minute or slower pace. I have no problem with slower people using the track, in fact I think it's great, it just makes workouts a little trickier when you have to dodge people and run in lane 3 around some of the turns. Oh well.

The workout was 5 x 800, with 2:30 rest. I ran 2:21, 2:19, 2:20, 2:18 and 2:21. These felt pretty fast, but I think I can attribute this to the fact that it was my first workout in a long time, and not that I'm out of shape. It was fun to get back into workout mode.... checking splits, feeling a little worse after the first lap of each interval, going lactic a little earlier on each one, etc. etc. Getting up on my toes was good too, haven't really used that form in a while either.
We cooled down 3 miles to give us 9.5 on the day. Overall I think the workout went well. I would have liked it to be a little less hectic, but I guess I can't complain, I was able to use a 200m indoor track a quarter mile from my apartment. Maybe next week I'll do some longer intervals (mile repeats?). With the Has-Beens Mile quickly approaching, I probably should do some really fast quarters, but mile repeats will be better for me aerobically, and are more in line with marathon training.

After the workout, Nate, Rosen and I went to Anna's Taqueria. It's pretty much the best place ever. But, since Nate is a big baby, he decided the Super Burrito was too much and elected not to get one. Wuss. At some point I will dedicate an entire blog entry to a detailed description of Anna's and all of its glory.

Quick Update

Ok.... just running. Yesterday I did 8 through Boston on my own before work. It was pretty terrible out. I was running across Mass Ave bridge at MIT (officially called the "Harvard Bridge", affectionately known as "Smoot Bridge") and it was pretty much pitch black, 38 degrees, raining and windy. Not too much fun. This morning Hog, Bromka and I did our Tufts loop. It's 9 miles, and my legs felt suprisingly good, considering they were only 2 days removed from an 18 miler. Nate and I are going to try and run intervals at MIT tomorrow, considering we can't get into Tufts.

Also, I promise I'll post a long term training plan/overview about my Boston preparation in the near future....

2006

Ok.... so the race on Saturday. BU has one of the best indoor track facilities in the whole country. It's very bouncy, and banked. They run a few "mini-meets" each winter before the collegiate season kicks into full gear. I had run in one last year, and Nate and I thought it might be fun to run in one again. The meets themselves are really low-key... 6 heats of the mile, with people running anywhere from 4:15 to 5:50 etc. etc. It's pretty fun to watch some of the older/slower people out there really racing hard.

Nate and I decided to both run the mile, and tried to seed ourselves in the same heat (4:30 each). I really didn't think I would be able to run this fast. For one, I haven't been running enough consistent mileage. (Probably averaged about 50-55 over the last 8-10 weeks). I also haven't run any speedwork since the summer. I did a few workouts with Lacey in July, then the LSAT class started, didn't work out at all in the fall, ran alumni run and NESCAC open race, but 5:00 pace was the fastest I had gone in a while. No strides either.

The race ended up going a lot better than I thought it would. Hog and I were both in the second heat, which turned out to be perfect. After 3 miles of warm up and some strides we lined up on the track to run a race that usually requires quite a bit of speedwork and tuning to run well. The pack went out in about 69 for the first quarter and I was sitting in 3rd, feeling pretty comfortable. The pace gradually picked up over the next half mile, and I was able to stay near the front the whole time. I realized we were actually running decently, and tried to get by Hog with about 400m left. The move proved to be a little immature, as Hog rolled by me with about 250 to go. He got 2nd and I got 4th (I think). Official time was 4:29.75 for a full mile (i.e. not 8 laps). This is great. With a few workouts and longer Sunday runs I may be able to run some decent track times this indoor season.

-----

New Year's Eve was a lot of fun. Skip, Cummings and I went out with Sarah Ahmed and a bunch of her friends (and Andrea Piekarski, a fellow Foley buddy) to The Harp, which is right across from the Fleet Center. Despite getting there an hour before the bar eve opened (which, Sarah, was an excellent idea. I hope you read this and feel like a terrible person), the night was a blast. Here are a few pictures from then... The first is Cummings, myself and Skip, and the second is Sarah and I. (Quick explanation, I was trying to cross my eyes for the camera, but I think the picture was taken when I was about halfway there....) Oh, I also ran 8.5 on New Year's day with Hog.






































And, in other news, Nate and I ran 18 miles this morning. Yeah, it was a pretty long run. We went out on the Charles to Watertown (and then a little farther, which was a mistake of mine, oh well), then south on Centre Street, past BC Law School, to Comm Ave, up Heartbreak, past BC Res, and then down Beacon to BU, and back up Brookline St. It took 2:05:50, which is a pretty long time to be running, even by our standards. I felt decent for the first 14 or 15, and then pretty crappy toward the end. My hamstrings and hips were still really sore/beat up from the race on saturday. I was glad to go this far though, becuase at some point I'm going to have to get comfortable running between 16 and 22 each Sunday. If I can get to the point where going out for 18 isn't so bad, then I'll know I'm in good shape to run Boston.

Happy New Year everyone!