… that dead space on this blog. Hopefully, we have hit the valley here on amarathoner.com. I mean death valley as in absence of life and blogging. It’s been nearly a week since I’ve last keyed in my thoughts. Why? Laziness? Maybe. More likely wrapping up the last few work days before “vacation”. I say “vacation” because we are packing up the crew to head back to Chicago to visit family. It’s less a vacation and more like not working in a new location … the same stuff, different place. Although, the benefit is that I am not in the office … so there is something. What have I been doing since early last week? Let’s see: Continue Reading
Entries from August, 2010
Weekly Running Review (August 16th)
Week of August 16th
| Day | Type | Miles | Pace |
| Monday | Rest Day | 0.0 | NA |
| Tuesday | Speedwork | 10.5 | 8:08 |
| Wednesday | Recovery | 6.1 | 8:34 |
| Thursday | Tempo (w/ wu, cd) | 11.5 | 8:14 |
| Friday | Recovery | 7.1 | 8:23 |
| Saturday | Rest Day | 0.0 | NA |
| Sunday | Long Run | 21.0 | 8:45 |
| Total Mileage: | 56.2 | ||
| Pace: | 8:24 |
1 Down, More to Go
Instead of a daily blog, this is turning into a weekly data dump. I don’t like that. You can’t like it either. I need more blogging consistency. Here’s the recap of last week: Continue Reading
Write-Off
On to the next one … When a blog post starts with those 5 words, you can imagine that the workout was less than stellar. Tuesday night on the track certainly qualified as less than stellar. The assignment: 5x1k @ 5k pace with 200 recovery. The absurdly short recovery was instituted to force us to run at TRUE 5k pace. Did I listen? Eventually, but not after suffering for a bit. Results: Continue Reading
Weekly Running Review (August 9th)
Week of August 9th
| Day | Type | Miles | Pace |
| Monday | Rest Day | NA | NA |
| Tuesday | Easy | 6.00 | 8:18 |
| Wednesday | Recovery | 5.00 | 8:40 |
| Thursday | Tempo (w/ wu, cd) | 10.04 | 8:00 |
| Friday | Recovery | 7.04 | 8:27 |
| Saturday | Rest Day | NA | NA |
| Sunday | Long Run | 15.01 | 8:32 |
Land of Gatsby
This past weekend we retired to our estate in the Hamptons schlepped to our friend’s place in East Hampton to visit, let the kids swim, etc. We’ve been in New York for 8 years and it was our first adventure to the land of Great Gatsby. No particular prejudice against the tony spots on the Atlantic. Either work or work or work have tended to interfere with past opportunities to head 3+ hours east of NYC for a weekend of frolicking. Since I saw no reason to object, we made the trek. Considering all the crap I put my wife thru with this running business, it’s the least I could do. My one MAJOR reservation was how/where/when could I get a medium run accomplished. It’s well-established that I am in full-on selfish Marathon mode, so I really don’t care much about anyone else’s needs (for the most part) as long as I get in my workouts. Continue Reading
Even Steven
Tuesday. While I certainly could be accused as being too conservative (soft?) in my approach to workouts this week after Sunday’s 18, at this stage in the game I’d rather be safe than sorry. On Tuesday, we had our scheduled track workout. The session itself was enticing 6x800s at 5 mile pace. Our coach benevolently gave the troops a break after CPTC’s strong showing at Saturday’s Team Championships. Despite enjoying 800s, I had no intention of running even at the reduced pace (normally it’s 5k pace). My legs were not particularly heavy, nor was I feeling beat up from going long. However, I had zero intention of being a hero either. Therefore, I chose to jog slowly to the track and run separately on the nice, soft, rubbery surface. @mpatent, who PR’d on Saturday, joined me on the warm up and for the bulk of easy loops on the track. My legs thanked me for the break …6mi @ 8:18 pace. No damage done. Continue Reading
Weekly Running Review (Week of August 2nd)
| Day | Type | Miles | Pace |
| Monday | Rest | 0.00 | 0:00 |
| Tuesday | Speedwork/Intervals | 9.12 | 8:01 |
| Wednesday | Recovery | 7.08 | 8:32 |
| Thursday | Easy | 7.02 | 8:17 |
| Friday | Rest | 0.00 | 0:00 |
| Saturday | Race (wu & cd) | 10.13 | 7:59 |
| Sunday | Long Run | 18.03 | 8:17 |
A Whole Lotta Miles
Team Championships Recap
If I have not made this abundantly clear to you (I certainly have to Alpha and Beast). We race waaaaay too much. I will not let this happen to me next year. Promise. My last team-oriented race (will explain in a minute) was Saturday … NYRR Team Championships 5 miler. Continue Reading
The Return of the Soup
Ahhh. That pleasantness we enjoyed in the northeast is a distant memory. Maybe without the suffocation of mid-July, but the humidity certainly reappeared. Bleh. Call it acclimation or just depressed resignation, but I comparatively felt much better trekking through though the soup over the last couple of days. Continue Reading