25,000 miles rolled
this morning i headed out on the glacial drumlin trail for an easy 5 miles. temps were in the low 20’s with a brisk wind from the north. (nothing like spring in wisconsin) time to hit the shower and drive to michigan to visit family.
MTD – 20
YTD – 666
Odometer – 25,003
taper time
i skipped running yesterday. the weather has turned colder and the wind has been blustery. today i brought gear and ran 5 miles "off reservation" in 39 minutes. the soreness from the half marathon has pretty much gone away. all that’s left now is to go through the motions with some easy running between now and April 16th.
upon further review
i was credited with 3rd in the 30-34 age group at trailbreaker. thanks go to fiservant jeff who pointed it out to me. part of me is mad at myself for charging out in 5:50. if i had run smarter, that should have been a PR…even with the wind and rain. regardless, the focus this spring is BOSTON.
sunday i took the day off from running. i was way too sore from the prior day’s effort. monday afternoon i finally got motivated to go for an easy run, which ended up to be 5 miles at 8:10 pace. getting the blood moving helped reduce the soreness. today i hopped on the treadmill at work and ran 5 miles in slightly under 8 minute pace. there’s little to no impact from a treadmill which will help with recovery.
at this point, i should be about 10K short of 25,000 miles.
trailbreaker half
this morning i headed over to bethesda park to see the marathoners run by. i had some friends in the race, but i also wanted to see what folks were wearing. dressing for mid-40’s can be tricky. after most of the marathoners passed by, i headed over to get registered.
i warmed up with a mile before the start and toed the line. the race started and i was out like a jackrabbit. 5:50 for the first mile…ugh! well, i had hung it out there so i may as well see what i could muster. we headed out with mainly a tailwind. at about 4 miles it began to sprinkle, which was no big deal considering how much heat i was generating. i felt bad for the volunteers and spectators. standing outside in that mess wouldn’t have been comfortable.
jim came up on my shoulder at about 5.5 miles and we headed up to the turn around. a guy who was ahead of us both stopped to drink at the aid station, a sure sign that he was struggling. jim motored hard out of the turn around and i ended catching the guy who stopped for water at around 8 miles. by this point, we were running into a headwind in a driving rain.
the last significant uphill finishes slightly after 10 miles. i kept focusing on keeping a quick turn over for my legs and trying to lean slightly forward into the wind. i passed over the bridge at bethesda park and had only a mile to go. i got a little tripped up in a dirt section of trail and was running on empty. with less than a half mile to go, another runner came up on my shoulder. we crossed the last street before frame park and he let loose. i did what i could but he had much more still in the tank than i did.
i ended up finishing in 1:27:03, which was only 26 seconds slower than my personal record set on the Trailbreaker course in 2002. the effort ranks as my second best half marathon time. overall i finished 13th out of 371 finishers. in the 30-34 age group i was 4th with the guy who passed me in the waning moments of the race taking 3rd. (the guy who won was in our age group so depending on how you look at it…i was either 3rd or 4th as some races exclude the overall winner from age group awards)
overall, the result is a good sign of fitness for BOSTON. i need to dial it back and avoid the jackrabbit start…especially at BOSTON. from looking at race calculators, i’ve got a good shot at running a good time at BOSTON. i’ll have to wait to see what the weather looks like, but my guess right now is that i’d try to stick on 7 minute pace for as long as i can at BOSTON. (16 days until BOSTON)
today’s run also finished the month with a new personal record for miles in the month of march. i ended up with 244 miles and my old record was 213. i now stand about 16 miles short of 25,000 miles.
day off
i got to sleep in this morning, which was nice for a change. tomorrow is my one and only tune up race for BOSTON. the local paper ran an article about the Trailbreaker with me as the local featured runner. pretty cool. i’ll scan it and post it when time permits.
it should be interesting to see what i’ve got in my legs at this point. BOSTON is still my primary focus but Trailbreaker is in my city and it’s almost like the first official event of spring (at least for me). the weather forecast isn’t real rosy…upper 40’s and rain…but that’s what you get in spring in wisconsin!