"This love's gettin' dangerous, feels like a loaded gun, my my its turning like a cloud of dust my heart always wants to run"
White Horse Chris Stapleton
Another up and down week for your truly, " up and down like a whores draws" as the auld fella used to say.......welcome to another week of Kevinrunningfree....
Monday March 3rd
Easy/Recovery 4 miler to kick off the week, 36.26.1 off 9.07 mile pace w/ splits of 8.32-9.27-9.30-8.55 nothing fancy but I was just looking to get the crap out of my legs after Sundays long run
I noticed the nations flags that hang from the lamp posts on the Ben Franklin Parkway are being rehung, they got taken down for the Eagles parade as I'm sure some of them would've gone home as souvenirs , my guess is come the Love Run on March 30th they'll all be flying, the starting line is close to where the Irish Tricolour hangs which always gives me a boost, the pride I get from wearing my Ireland running uniform is second to none, as JFK famously said "I may not have been born in Ireland....but Ireland was born in me".......
Tuesday March 4th
An untimed 4 miler which I have to say felt good, nice to have a run that isn't dictated by speed, pace splits, just a runner and his thoughts, I have to say since I opted for the Parkway and Kelly Drive sometime in late fall this route has become my favourite lunchtime run cutting out Market St and JFK Blvd both of which had way too many red lights for my liking, it does mean less time along the Schuylkill River which can be a blessing and a curse, the Schuylkill River Trail is great to run along but if the wind is whipping off of it or on the rare occasions it breaches its banks it's not so much fun
The clocks are going forward this Sunday which frees up evening runs if I so choose, to be honest I'm happy to run at lunchtime, the week after next I might bump the run up to 5 miles it's much easier to get my miles in at lunch time than worry about coming home after work and getting my arse back out the door, granted I could get more miles in that way but looking at the big picture if I do 4 times 5 miles Monday thro Thursday that's 20 miles plus my long run on the weekend which could be 20 miles later in the year for a 40 mile week, that could work.......
Thursday March 6th
Ye can't fight City Hall or Mother Nature, Wednesdays run got rained off, don't get it twisted I've no issue running in the rain but yesterday was a doozie, at 2pm I ducked into an empty office to get changed and stretched b4 heading out, when I looked out the window to Chestnut St 21 floors below me everything looked a go no umbrellas etc, in the time it took to get out of my work clothes and into my running gear the rain was bouncing off the window and the wind was howling, stick a fork in it!
So now off the back of an untimed run and an unscheduled rest day I had a crack at a hard/tempo run ,I wasn't aiming for Feb 12ths Seasons Best time of 33.14.6 when I set off around 2.10pm.......
8.05 for the opening split, as the saying goes " can't put the Genie back in the bottle now" by the time I reached the Schuylkill River Trail/Kelly Drive I could feel the wind in my face, mile 2 was going to be a fight...8.38 split, hopefully after the turn at the end of Boathouse Row the wind would be at my back and I hadn't used up too much energy fighting the wind heading north
8.33 for mile 3 it was going to be close but this ain't my first Rodeo....nor my last.......7.55 for the final mile.....sure it was wind assisted but I'll take it.....
33.12.4 a new seasons best time by 2 seconds off 8.18 mile pace to compare w/ the previous sb my splits were:7.35-8.30-9.06-8.02 off 8.17 mile pace
At six weeks in to my training I feel I'm back to a level of strength speed and stamina where I can go out hard and hold on, however the old adage of not getting too high off your wins was about to play out......
Sunday March 9th
You'd have thought off the back of last weeks 10 miler on top of the fact on the final day of the European Indoor Athletics C'ships Ireland won a Gold and 2 Bronze medals and Cork's 15 point annihilation of Clare in the Allianz League Hurling I'd be fair flying it.......
I don't know if the time change threw me off it was 2.30pm when I headed out 1.30pm in old money if said clocks hadn't gone forward so my normal time to go long on a Sunday I do know the wind was fair savage so I nixed any thoughts of going out and back along the Schuylkill and opted for Powelton Ave
8.37 for the opening mile b4 the turn on to Powelton Ave, I could feel the wind in my face and when mile 2 clocked in at 9.28 making the left onto 31st St at roughly 2.5 miles I knew "it wasn't going to be my day" I stopped once on 31st b4 it becomes Mantua Ave after Spring Garden St and again on Mantua Ave and turned around to head back, this race was run a 9.42 mile for mile 3 b4 I called " time of death" at 27.07 off 9.16 mile pace.....
Was last Sunday a "false dawn??" is the monkey still on my back w/ double digit runs? I don't know I have 2 more weekends b4 the Love Run to try for a 12 miler and maybe 14 miler....I DO NOT want a repeat of last years Love Run debacle nor a rerun of PDR from September at a time I'm embracing my "Inner Cowboy" I would prefer to keep my Texas Two Steping to the dance floor and not my running thank y'all very much, time to round up the doggies, piss on this camp fire and head off into the sunset and hope for happier trails next week........
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