I’m a little slow in posting last week’s effort for some reason. Maybe it’s because I had been busy with other work or out running/eating/sleeping/painting and putting together a room for a new baby and hanging out with my three-year old boy. Whatever the reason, I’m hand on, baby!
Be that as it is, I’ve also been searching for interesting running tidbits from around the world to preface the workouts, but again, nothing piqued my interest. After closely following the cycling scene for the past year and Major League Baseball for the last seven years, I need a bit of breather in writing about doping, steroids and the inexplicable testing programs.
Meanwhile I read that Khalid Khannouchi is out of this weekend’s NYC half-marathon because, um, his foot hurts. Yeah, that’s it. Hopefully, his camp reports, he will be healthy enough to compete in the marathon Olympic Trials set for Nov. 3 in Manhattan.
There is a little more than 13 weeks to the big Olympic Trials, which means the elite runners qualified for the race are beginning to ramp up the training at the shot to go to Beijing in 2008. For those not qualified and looking to get a 2:22 marathon for a shot to compete in NYC on Nov. 3, the deadline is Oct. 7. Because of this, the Chicago Marathon pushed up its race date for this year to give any would-be qualifiers a chance on the famous, pancake flat course. Meanwhile, the Steamtown Marathon in Scranton, Pa. boasts the fastest course in the U.S. and is being held the same day as Chicago.
If I had the capability to go under 2:22 and needed a trials qualifier, I’d definitely be in Scranton or Chicago on Oct. 7. Instead it will be Harrisburg on Nov. 11 and Boston on April 21, 2008.
After that, who knows… more training, I guess.
Here’s the training from July 23-29:
Monday - 21 miles in 2:17:29
The hardest thing about running is getting out the door. I damn near abandoned the run because I felt a little rundown from the cold, but once I got going I didn't want to stop. Somewhere around the third mile I got locked in and felt super strong. It was definitely one of my better runs in a long time. I'm going to say the weather had a lot to do with that -- it was 70, low humidity and overcast... perfect.
splits:
1st 5: 33:08
2nd 5: 32:32
3rd 5: 32:49
4th 5: 32:01
Tuesday - 15 miles in 1:39:50
Have I ever stated that the most difficult aspect about running was simply getting out the door? Have I? Anyway, today was one of those days where I struggled to get out of the house and stiff-leggedly ran through the first five miles half asleep, feeling beat up and ready to do some easy, 7-minute miling. But then those easy miles turned into solid 6:30s somehow and if I didn't force myself to stop at 15 miles I would have posted another 20-plus.
What the hell?
splits:
1st 5: 34:07
2nd 5: 32:44
3rd 5: 32:58
Wednesday - 15 miles in 1:40:04
This one was as steady as she goes. I just ran and didn't really vary the pace -- though I mixed in some surges. In retrospect I should have left the field and run some hills, but I felt comfortable and was kind of locked in to circling around on my loop.
Oh well. I'll take it.
splits:
1st 5: 33:36
2nd 5: 33:19
3rd 5: 33:09
Thursday - 15 miles in 1:41:16
I was definitely dragging ass on this one. After getting home from work at 3 a.m. after a 14-inning baseball game, not sleeping as much as I needed and then getting up to do it all over again on a very humid afternoon, I'm pretty lucky that I squeezed out the run.
Nevertheless, it's still worth it to do the work and everything else that goes with it. That part really feels good even though I was crawling around my loop.
splits:
33:55
33:52
33:29
Friday - 16 miles in 1:49:57
I finally hit the hills and that was good. Though I didn't seek out all of the hills around the neighborhood, I did three miles worth of repeats up one 600-meter incline. Leading up to that I ran an up-and-down three miles before taking it home on a flat final five miles.
During part of that final stretch I ran 6:15-to-6:30 pace, which was good.
Just to make sure it was a really tough run it was 90 degrees and humid.
Anyway, I did some hills and hopefully I can include the code for the altitude gain, etc. here via Google maps or GPS. Better yet, I should do more hill workouts even though the field is much easier on my legs.
Saturday - 13 miles in 1:28:02
I just died out there today. The combination of not getting to bed until 3 a.m. (again!) and the nasty, nasty humidity wiped me out.
I started out on the field where I ran 5 miles in 33:32, and then detoured home to get a drink. From there I went through the neighborhood and hit some of the hills, but nothing like yesterday. By the time I circled around F&M I decided to cut it off even though I wanted to do 14 or 15 miles.
Oh well. It's been a busy week. I'll take the 13, rest up and get ready for next week.
Sunday - 5 miles in 32:38
I didn't get out until 5 p.m., but that was OK. Today was just an easy, easy day. I wanted to go 6 miles, but 5 was good enough. Then we went to see the Simpsons movie.
An even 100 miles for the week. I’m not sure how many weeks of 100 that is in a row, but I think it’s pretty good. If I stay consistent and add more quality workouts I will be ready to run reasonably fast.