Sunday, December 24, 2017

All I Want For Christmas Is For The Universe To Stop Fuckin' W/ Me*

* Actually there are a few things I'd prefer but this would be a start........

Mea Culpa time first,sorry for the lack of blogging of late......this stems from a lack of actual running!!!
Did notch a 10 miler on Tue Dec 5th....blink and you'd have missed it
Throw in two midweek Spurs games,some late afternoons at work,a bit of fatigue,brass monkeys cold{snow three times in seven days between Dec 9th & 15th} and a need for new running shoes and there you have two weeks off the books

Tue Dec 19th
10 Miles: I had hoped to get things back on schedule on Monday...and would have IF Postman Pratt had done his job properly on Saturday and rang my doorbell while I was home,instead he shoves the old "we tried to deliver" card thro the mailbox and forced me over to the local Sorting Office to collect a book and dvd I'd ordered from Amazon Monday after work,it was gone 5pm when I got home so I stuck  the proverbial fork in it....what's one more day yeah?
Tuesday saw me break in the new running shoes after logging 350 miles on the last pair,it was also the maiden run w/ my new Nike long sleeve Yellow Spurs training shirt,warm enough to use as an outer layer to be visible in dead of Winter and thin enough to use as a base layer when it'll freeze the bollocks off a brass Monkey during said winter
Felt good to be out running again.

Wed Dec 20th
10 Miles: Swooped bandana for thermal hat and gloves today,maybe not that cold but way milder than yesterday{case in point Tue I ran w/ my sleeves rolled up,today sleeves down,gloves on!!} and w/ miles 3 through 8 along the Schuylkill River I wasn't about to play "fast and loose" w/ conditions period,muchless w/ my pisspoor blood circulation.
Highlight of the run just after mile 6 I was cognizant of footsteps behind me and then heavy breathing on my left hand side.......really.....you wanna do this dance??? my conditioning level maybe in pre season level but my you want it,you're gonna earn it level is right up there in mid season form as I pushed the pace a little and dropped my would be overtaker,as Patti Dillon famously said"make em spit blood if they want to pass you".....

Thur Dec 21st
10 Miles: It's been a while since I've logged back to back to back runs period,muchless in midweek but if I needed to prove/underline my desire to get things back on schedule hopefully this went a ways to  doing so.
Highlight of the run,observing the crescent moon over W.Philly on the other side of the Schuylkill River as I made my way to the five mile make along Kelly Drive,while a fully paid up member of the "Loneliness Of The Long Distant Runner" society it was kind of reassuring to think someone was watching over me in the pitch black dark of the early evening

Sunday Dec 24th
10 Miles: So in yet another classic example of work screwing my running schedule w/ their uncanny ability to and I quote fuck up a Teddy Bears Picnic Saturdays proposed Tempo run and Sundays Track intervals got obliterated thanks to an 11 hour work day Friday......by the time I got home just gone 6pm  I wasn't heading back out to go grocery shopping now....so that took precedence Saturday morning thus putting the kybosh on the Tempo run....
Sunday my choices were: 8 Mile Tempo Run,5x1000m repeats,10 miler or saying BOLLOCKS.......I opted for the 10 miler!
A rare Sunday run,I think the last was my Tempo Run on Dec 3rd,it was nice to run in the daylight again even if it was a tad brisk at 8.40am.
If Accu Weather are to be believed{I don't believe in Santa,Cupid or the Easter Bunny so why the fuck would I believe in the Weather peeps!!}from Wednesday onwards it won't get above freezing so today,tomorrow,and Tuesday are going to be positively "balmy" compared to what's in the forecast...

A 4 day/40mpw....not too shabby it puts me at 950 miles for the year....SO the hope for the final week of the year is a minimum of 5 days at 10 miles or 4 days at 10 miles and a Tempo Run/Track Intervals on the weekend for 54 mpw either or gives me 1000/1004 miles for the year.....in a year of small victories what's one more?

Sunday, December 3, 2017

As You Were/Pretending To See The Future

I've never been one to sit on my laurels when things have gone to script so when things turn to shite aka the Philly Marathon the mindset is just the same,get out there and get after it.......

Monday 10 Miles
My legs may have recovered from the pounding the marathon put on them but judging from the edge this first post "we can't organize a piss up in a Brewery or a bunk up in a Brothel" run exhibited there was, and still will be some residual anger towards the event,but as John Lydon sang in "Rise" anger is an energy and boy was  I energetic......
It felt good to be out there running again anger or not and while I didn't bother to wear my Garmin since I know where the  five mile mark is nor did I need to time the run I figured on 10 min mile pace for a comfortable 1.30.....I left at 4.50pm and got back by 6.20pm....more like 8 min mile pace for 1.20.......no wonder my calves were screaming a tad......

Thursday 10 Miles
Wednesdays proposed run got 86ed at the last minute but I wasn't allowing myself to slide into bad habits and made sure to get out and get after it on Thursday.
Given it's more or less dusk by 5pm now I once again opted for one of my several Yellow Spurs shirts over a long sleeve running shirt given it was mild enough not to require a jacket.....to that end as we enter December and Winter I bought a long sleeve Yellow Spurs training shirt recently,I refuse to not run because it's dark....nor do I want to hear the "I didn't see you" excuse that's almost contractually obligated during Dec,Jan,Feb

Saturday 10 Miles
Spurs kick off at 10am.......no worries,up at 6am and out the door by 7am to "handle my business" b4 8.20am
W/ a 7am start I did go w/ my thermal hat and gloves which felt prudent,the trade off for brisk am running is daylight so old fateful my Blue Spurs training jacket got an airing.
Felt good to run in daylight again,something that will be in short supply the next few months unless it's the weekend or day off from week during the week

Sunday 8 Mile Tempo Run
B4 I lost out on a track season for 2018 I had opted to reintroduce the 8 mile tempo run into my weekly rotation,the logistics are a bit of a ball buster for a 54 min run it took two and a half hours from when I left home 8am till my return 10.30am but that has as much to do w/ Sunday service on mass transit and NOT a reason to  not have it in the rotation.
My baseline was 7 min mile pace over 8 miles for a target time of 56 mins,my splits were:6.12 6.46 6.36 6.49 7.09 7.06 7.06 6.59 for 54.43.4 off 6.50 mile pace
If I thought not starting till 8.45am would not require gloves I erred and after mile 1 balled my fists up and pulled my jacket sleeves down to cover them but by mile three they were ok and by mile 4 I was able to roll my sleeves up a tad.
So fingers crossed on Friday when I scheduled a day off from work I can get over to the Art Museum Loop  and have at it again  between Lloyd Hall counter clockwise up Kelly Dr,down W.River Dr and finish at the foot of the steps of the Art Museum and beat 54.43

W/ the dust now settled on the marathon debacle I've been able to tentatively rewrite my 2018 season,heavy on half marathons the tentative schedule looks like this:
Jan 21st Fred Lebow Half*
Mar 18th United Airlines Half
Mar 25th Love Run Half
May 5th Indianapolis Mini Marathon Half
May 20th Airbnb Brooklyn Half
June 3rd Oddessey Half Marathon
July 29th San Francisco Marathon
Sept 16th Philly Rock & Roll Half Marathon
Oct 8th Portland Marathon or Half
Nov 10th Rocky Run 5k & 10M....equals a half marathon

The Fred Lebow half is tentative because mid January who the fuck knows what the weather is doing,to that end I could run indoors at The Armory on Jan 11th over 3,000m and or Jan 25th over 5,000m,however I would need to see a dramatic improvement in my pace on the tempo runs and also reintroduce weekly interval workouts which I have penciled in for Dec 16th and 23rd.
As much as I wanted to consider the LA Marathon on Mar 18th finances or a lack thereof have ruled that out,since I didn't think I'd be worrying about another marathon after Nov 19th I didn't make any fiscal plans and now that I have opted to tackle another marathon that requires entry fees,airfare,accommodation and w/ a family trip to "the auld country" Ireland NOT Kenya...in mid July I can't swing LA hence why San Fran is on the schedule,w/ Portland as my fall back
The Portland half is linked by the MLS Schedule,IF the Portland Timbers have a home game the weekend of October 7th/8th I can kill two birds w/ one stone IF I can't swing San Fran from a $
standpoint then it's the Portland marathon irregardless of a home game or not

This is ALL  subject to change but for now it's the blue print I'm working from