6x600M @ St Joes

76-36-1.52.4
76-32-1.50.7
74-34-1.48.9
76-34-1.50.6
73-36-1.49.9
73-32-1.45.3

Iron What??

After last Thursdays sizzling 97 degrees it was only 92 degs yesterday afternoon so tempo run it was!!!
Initially I thought I'd gone out too slow as I only clocked 1.43 at the opening 1/4 mile marker,however I then dropped a 6.54 opening mile and more or less settled into a good rhythm and tempo for the remainder of the loop as my splits indicate.
I only have two more tempo runs left b4 Nationals after a two week hiatus for the next two weeks,I've enjoyed the tempo run around the loop,chances are it stays in my rotation post Nationals as I begin to build for the "fall classics" 5th Avenue Mile and Syracuse.

Tonite I'm off to the Camden riverfront to throw devil horns around as Iron Maiden are back in town for the 4th time in 6 years,frankly in this headbangers humble opinion Iron Maiden are the greatest thing to come out of East London since Pie and Mash!!!!......why do you think my blog is named after an Iron Maiden song????

Art Museum 8.4M Loop

Mile 1-6.54
Mile 2-13.50
Mile 3-20.36
Mile 4-27.36
Mile 5-34.40
Mile 6-41.46
Mile 7-48.40
Mile 8-55.40
Finish-58.18

Mistaking Kindness For Weakness

Blame it on a lack of sleep not getting home from NYC till 12.25am and then having to be up by 5.33am for work but yesterday saw me make good on the time honoured expression that the F in my name Kevin F Forde stands for fiesty!!!!!

In my almost 11 years of running the dock it has been duly noted I can be "as pleasent as cancer" or as "cuddly as a Porqupine" first thing in the morning.....and not much better in or around lunch time on a bad day,factor in a lack of sleep,sprinkle in the thought that my chain is being yanked and a couple of pushy contractors trying to run roughshed over me and the dock it it was no surprise I asked the time honoured questions"do I have welcome written across my forehead?" "do I look like Sonic Hedgehog to you?" did I channge my name to Stradovarious???"....NO well then don't walk all over me,don't play me like a Sega Genesis and don't play me like a violin either!!!!!!

It's hard not to feel the loading dock gets a bum rap at the best of times from outside influences but when my own boss pulls crap like yesterday"we can't have person x down in the storeroom Friday for inventory cos they can't count so we're sending him up to the dock and keeping Joe downstairs......"then the gloves tend to come off,how does your problem now become my problem up here because he screwed up the count last year???

It's a good job I run, to manage my stress levels alone it's a life saver and while it was only a recovery 5 miler looping around Clark Park the constant looping around helped defuse any lingering anger the days shift at work had brought on......I run therefore I am.....less prone to choaking the living shit out of the next arsehole who crosses me at work.........would not look a miss on a tshirt me thinks!!!!

Pleading The Fifth But Finishing Sixth

I don't drink coffee I take tea my dear I like my toast done on one side
And you can hear it in my accent when I talk I'm an Englishman in New York
See me walking down Fifth Avenue a walking cane at my side
I take it everywhere I walk I'm an Englishman in New York

Englishman In New York-Sting

The good news is I made to and from New York City last nite w/out incident or rancor for my race at Icahn Stadium for the second of four Tuesday Nite At The Races series.
The bad news is my time of 2.09.5 is slower than I was hoping for period muchless as a seed time for Nationals.....but w/ an 800m on tap at Heywards Field in Portland Oregon aka Tracktown USA in just over two weeks I'm hopeful of a faster time then leading into Nationals in just over five weeks time.

At least I arrived on Randall's Island at a decent time b4 the meet,the horrors of a fortnite ago seemed like a bad dream as I was able to make my way from midtown to 103rd and Lexington and then walk over the 103rd St bridge and over to the track and have ample time to register,warm up and shoot the breeze w/ the regulars who know me from my frequent trips to NYC
Took some good natured ribbing about arriving on time from some of the NYC fraternity of runners who knew what I went through two weeks ago,I took it in stride I was happy to be here on time and wanted to be focused yet relaxed b4 the meet got under way.

After one heat of the womens 1,500m and four heats of the mens the 400m quickly came and went and then seeding for the 800m.
The seeded heat was a little too rich for my blood 1.50-1.59 and judging from the 8th and last place runner who crossed the line well adrift of the field w/ his 2.07 those guys were the real deal.
Heat 2,ten of us seeded between 2.00-2.10 I lined up 4th on the starting line and waited for the starting gun to go off......

I got a good reaction to the gun,got over into lane one going into the turn w/out having to weave all over the opening turn and settled in to the rear of the pack in 7th place.
I heard splits of 29,30,31 as we went through 200m I was a couple of meters behind the leaders so I was probably somewhere in the region of 31-32 seconds and in touch w/ the pack,no running in no mans land always a plus over any distance but essential in the two laps of an 800m
63 seconds at the bell and a bit of jockeying for positon around the turn as I passed one runner and held off another at the top of the back stretch I'd have liked to have gone to my "go to move" from my repeats but that's the difference between a race where any number of situations can jump off and an interval session where you more or less dictate the outcome.
1.30-1.31-1.32 at 600m for the front of the pack,at a guess I was somewhere between 1.33-1.36.
Off the final turn I wasn't running flat out....but I was wasn't gassed either as I w/held the challenge of a would be 6th place finisher and crossed the line 6th in 2.09.59.

In terms of time I'm a little disappointed,I went 2.09.7 at Widener just over two weeks ago so I failed to improve any signifigent time on that,however in racing terms it had been a good performance and at the end of the day there's just no substitute for races it's as pure as it gets.
So 2.09.5 will be my seed time for Lisle.....not earthshattering by any stretch and potentially not good enough to get on the podium but in words of Coldplay "Everything's Not Lost" and I still have a few weeks to work on that,it'd be nice to lower that in Haywards Field in my next race.

800m @ Icahn Stadium

Heat 2
6/10
2.09.5
Full Details To Follow

Still I Was Getting Used To It By Then.......

When you've followed the fortunes of the England soccer team as long as I (42 years and counting)you tend to take defeats in your stride,not sure if that's the stoic British stiff upper lip mentallity or the realization that heartache,disappointment and being deflated and let down by the "Three Lions" comes w/ the price of addmission!!

Former Liverpool legend Bill Shankly once famously said of football"some say it's a game of life or death....I say it's more important than that"....and for a time I wholeheartedly bought into that,each England defeat would bring tears,tantrums,and often things thrown now when they lose I take it in stride,maybe I've come to expect it,maybe I've outgrown "the national past time" or maybe just maybe I've come to acknowledge there are far more important things in life than the result of an England football game and prehaps that's why I adopt an "Pythonesque" attitude towards such matters these days!

Onto things I can control,my running and a easy 5 miler around trusty Clark Park as I prepare for a return trip to New York and Icahn Stadium for a crack at an 800m seed time for Nationals.
After the cock up that was my last trip I can only hope for smooth sailing up the Jersey Turnpike this afternoon and getting to Randall's Island in time for tonites meet,after watching the Olympic Trials last nite and the mens and womens 800m finals I'm inspired for a great two lapper.....fingers crossed!