"Yeah, we all had our day in the sun when a horse wants to run, there ain't no sense in closing the gate you can have your space, cowboy"
Space Cowboy Kacey Musgraves
Not a bad week, rounded out February w/ 76 miles and finally nailed a 10 mile run.......
Tuesday Feb 25th
Having sat out Monday for health concerns I discovered on Tuesday in my haste to get out the door at 7.10am that I'd forgotten to unhook my Garmin from the charger, having missed a run Monday I was loathe to miss another one today so I went old school and ran sans Garmin.......
I must say it was somewhat liberating not to be governed by the Garmin for once, not obsessing over time, pace, splits, etc at week five of my training I know full well where the 2 mile turnaround at Boathouse Row on Kelly Dr is by now
Moving forward I may skip the Garmin once a week, I was thinking Monday is an Easy/Recovery run, Tuesday Untimed, Wednesday Tempo/Hard run, Thursday Easy/Recovery run.......sounds good in theory but we all know theory and practice are often a horse of a different colour
Wednesday Feb 26th
Maybe it was the benefit of a rest day Monday and an untimed run yesterday but Wednesday yielded my second fastest time of the year 34.19.1 off 8.33 mile pace thanks to splits of: 8.37-8.41-8-54-8.06
I knew by the turn around in 17.18 I was on for something fast, mile 3 kinda got away from me but I finished strong and post run realized it was another negative split out in 17.18 back in 17.00
At week 5 of my return to regular training I'm starting to see and feel the benefits of getting back out there 4,5 times a week, granted the mileage is still low but we're a month away from the clocks going forward and the option of longer evening runs although I may just stick to my Monday-Thursday lunchtime routine and bump it up to 5 miles b4 going long on the weekend, at some point in May post Broad St Run I could be up to 20 miles for my long run plus 4x5 miles during the week, I could live on 40mpw....again it's theory and practice but in theory it sounds good
Thursday Feb 27th
Final run of the month, an easy/recovery 4 miles in 35.05.3 off 8.46 mile pace thanks to splits of:8.39-8.48-9.04-8.35
Nothing much to write home about, other than it bringing my monthly total to 76 miles, my best return since April of last year when I logged 81 miles, again little by little I feel it's getting there and I'm turning the corner, still a ways to go but as long as I see progress I'm not overly concerned how little it's by.....that said I'm hoping for a return to triple digit mileage in March.....
Sunday Mar 2nd
Third time's a charm! finally nailed a 10 miler however my trials and tribulations w/ double digit runs go back to June/July of last year, in the build up to PDR in mid September I couldn't buy a 10 mile run, in fact my last 10 miler was on July 27th when I was aiming for 12 miles, I clocked a 1.28.56 off 8.54 mile pace, I had to walk/run the final 5 miles of PDR and while I did get through the opening 10 miles of the Dublin marathon I then had to walk run the final 16 miles......
Each failure meant the proverbial " Monkey on my back" was starting to feel like King Kong period but w/ only 4 scheduled long runs in the build up to the Love Run 1/2 marathon in 5 weeks time the pressure was starting to build again....
Out the door by 1.30pm it was at least sunny....34 degrees but sunny, I opted not to run along the Schuylkill when it's that cold I don't need the wind whipping off the Schuylkill River for miles, 3-4-5-6-7-8 so I opted for Powelton Ave to Mantua Ave,34th Street to Lansdowne Dr, Fairmount Park to Belmont Ave and back
I wasn't overly concerned about time, speed, pace however on my 7 and 8 mile "long runs" I was averaging 9.35 mile pace so realistically I was looking at a 1.35 finish......finish being the operative word here, I needed to shed this millstone from around my neck that I couldn't log double digit runs
8.33 for the opening mile, it was a tad chilly to be hanging about but I needed to look at the big picture and pace myself accordingly....so when mile 2 came up at 8.07 I was a little concerned, however things settled down w/ almost identical splits at 3 and 4 miles,8.53-8.54
I knew mile 5 would be slower, the winding uphill on Lansdowne Dr to Fairmount Park is tough so no alarm bells when I clocked 9.46 43.32 at the half, a few rough moments along the way but unlike last week at the turn when I pretty much knew I wasn't going to make it all the way home I dug deep both mentally and physically, I needed this and I was going to dig deep to get it
8.59 for mile 6 the downhill Lansdowne Dr is always easier, 9.28 for mile 7 as I turned on to Mantua Ave, I now had to focus on 1 mile at a time, mile 8 was as far as I've ran not just this year but for a while take away PDR, Dublin Marathon and Rocky Run my last run over 8 miles was 9 miler on Oct 13th when I clocked 1.31.38 off 10.11 mile pace.....
9.44 for mile 8 down Powelton Ave, w/ 2 miles to go it would be a crime not to finish now so no matter how slow it got, how tough it got, how deep I had to dig I was gonna see it through to the bitter end if need be
9.26 at mile 9...I could taste it and while the final mile did get away from me a little 10.04 I finally had a 10 mile run under my belt
1.31.55 off 9.12 mile pace never felt as good as this did, one Swallow does not a Summer's make, but hopefully King Kong is off my back now and I can build on this, a 12 miler next weekend would be nice
My yurt and dirt of the week go to the same thing, finally in it's 12th year the Philly 10k is offering a finishers medal, it's the only race on my schedule that doesn't but given it ends a long drought of no races after BSR in early May to the end of August and sets me up for PDR in mid/late September and sets me up for the Fall Road Race season I run it anyway.....my dirt is they charged extra to runners who want the medal......WTF!!!!??? aside from the balls faced nerve to say" we're offering finishers medals....but ye have to pay extra to enter if ye want one" how how in the name of Jaysus are you going to determine who paid extra and who doesn't want the medal at the finish???....tbc....
