Tuesday, September 3, 2019

Welcome Back Shamrock Warrior,We've Been Expecting Ye!

Sweet Jaysus it took feckin' long enough{17 weeks if yer counting!} BUT finally back to 55mpw.
After a slow start to my year and getting my hole handed to me on a plate over 3,000m indoors at The Armory in early January I knuckled down and slowly began rebuilding my weekly mileage as I didn't need another humiliation like the one I got that nite,little by little my weekly mileage increased but I kept missing that one run that would have me back at the 55 mile plateau until the last week in Feb/early March where in the immortal words of Etta James "At Last" I had it.....and continued to have it for 9 of the next 10 weeks upto and including the week of Broad Street b4 the wheels came off....and stayed off for a while,come late June I knew it was time to "get back on the horse" and I had hoped by August I'd be back in "55 MPW Club".........shades of February all over again as either work or the weather seemed to derail those plans untill last week.............

Monday 12 Miles
W/ my calves still "screaming" after Sunday's Philly 10k this served as  a easy/recovery/shake out run to try and get the crap out of said calves......yeah,yeah,yeah "no pain,no gain,no guts no glory"
I'm a firm advocater that providing you can get out and run on a Monday you set yourself up for success for the rest of the week,miss an opportunity to get out there like I have in recent weeks and you begin the week behind the 8 Ball and as has been the case for "Himself" something else has jumped off to feck me....channeling my inner Ayra Stark"what do we say to the God's of Death....Not Today!"

Tuesday 15 Miles
Long Run.....Tuesday?    jaysus yer man is eager!!!
Knowing Sunday had pratfalls written all over it I figured "taking care of business" tonite was the way to go.....it's also a lot easier to be out there for  roughly 2hrs 10 mins when ye know your not getting up at silly o clock{4.45am} the following morning
Pretty much 8.5 min mile pace which is nice given I haven't felt I've had to dredge that up it has come naturally in recent weeks

Wednesday 8 Mile Tempo Run
Always a big ask off the back of the long run to ask myself to switch gears and run balls out but I enjoy the challenge of of running on tired legs
A little later than I had planned 2.40pm but not as damning as it would've been a few weeks ago
55.04.6 off 6.53 mile pace  w/ splits of
6.30-6.44-6.47-7.05-7.12-6.54-7.00-6.50
Still a tad erratic but slowly reducing the number of 7 min plus miles,down to three now and only a second away from it being two
1.18 quicker than last weeks effort but still only my 5th fastest time of the year,some work to be done to topple the 52.46.6 I ran in April but w/ cooler temps around the corner I feel that time could be in danger,my 4th fastest time of 54.36.7 is my next target

Thursday 12 Miles
After a long run and tempo run just what I needed an easy/recovery run to put me in arms reach of a 55mpw w/ 2 days to spare if needed
It's funny how an easy run can change w/ 3.5 miles to go and yer man quite content to "go w/ the flow" I heard footsteps coming up behind me as I headed south on the Schuylkill Banks......I really didn't want " a pissing contest"  so I wasn't too concerned who went by me,have at it it........till the fecker committed the  cardinal sin of not being a full stride and a half in front of me b4 cutting across me.
I don't give a flying fuck if it's Track,Road,Cross Country, race or training run.......when you overtake someone don't cut right across them like this little bollix did and w/ that I dropped the hammer and dusted the fucker w/in  a few meters.....
Remember kids,don't step on Superman's cape......and DON'T cut across the Shamrock Warrior when ye overtake him!!!!

Saturday 8 Miles
I wanted another 8 mile Tempo Run to round out the week at 55mpw but remembered the Welcome America July 4th concert on Ben Franklin Parkway resulted in the section of Schuylkill Banks behind the Art Museum being taped off,since that's on the approach to Lloyd Hall and where I begin my tempo run I figured it might be easier to go out and back to the Art Museum which is 8 miles.
Turned out they didn't tape off that section for the Made In America concert that uses the same stage set up as Welcome America,a classic "damned if I do,damned if I don't" moment.....
However.....finally a 5 day/55 mile week in the books and 152 mile for August putting my yearly total at 1,306
Hopefully I can go on another long run of 55mpws like I did in April and May as I gear up for Fall
Groucho Marx famously said "never join a club that would have someone like you as a member"....that said I like the 55mpw Club and plan to stick around a while.......

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