Talk about a long slump! It’s the
22nd of August today and since I last posted on the 27th
of June (57 days ago) I have run just 160 miles. I raced only once in that span
(on the last day of my 20s) and clocked a 17:53 for the 5k, nearly a full
minute off of my PR. While my running life hasn’t been remotely interesting
over this period I have done some stuff in my non-running life (what? I have
one of those?) Here’s what’s happened since I last posted.
1) Sarah
and I bought a house.2) I turned 30.
3) Sarah and I went on vacation to Ireland and Northern Ireland.
First: the house. It is small but
we’re right by Oak Grove in Malden so Sarah can walk to the train to get in for
work (this cuts ~30 minutes off of her commute each way). We’re also up on a
hill so every run I do (though there have not been many yet) ends with an
uphill sprint. From our front door it is only a 3 minute jog to get into the
Fells (or Oakdale Park?). Even if it is Oakdale Park instead of the Fells, I
can pick up the Cross Fells Trail (blue blazes) and get just about anywhere in
the Fells I want.
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| Sarah gave me a BBQ! |
We have a TV but so far have only
connected Netflix. The lack of new programing has helped us to be productive
with setting up the house. We will either get cable at some point or I’ll
actually start getting more things done once the house is sorted…who knows
which way this will go.
Second: turning 30. Shit. Now I
have to race against Bash and Bui…no more AG awards for me for a while. It was
nice running in my 20s where you can get a medal at almost any local race just
by showing up and running <6 min/mile (you can still do this in your 30s for
half marathons, full marathons and so forth but not 5ks).
I was 20 years old when I ran my
first race (10/4/03 New Hampshire Marathon 4:57:39). Yes, my first race was a
marathon and no, I had yet to log 1000 miles in my life when I ran it. I set
the goal of qualifying for Boston before I turned 30. At the time I needed to
run 3:10:59 to get in. My first “brush” with qualification came in 2008. I ran
1:33:34 for the first half of the Maine Marathon before falling apart over the
last 6 miles and walking it in for 3:24:05. I had no business running 1:33:34
over the first half because I had run a Half Marathon PR one week earlier at
the Wicked Half Marathon. That PR was 1:35:46.
At my next 2 marathons (2012
Napoli, Italy 3:48:32 and 2012 Cape Cod 3:40:31), I ran the first half
progressively faster (1:31:41 at Napoli, 1:29:33 at Cape Cod) without getting
any closer to actually qualifying. A week after Cape Cod, I ran the first half
of Manchester City in 1:37:00 to see if a slower first half would produce a
faster finish. It did. I came home with 3:17:30 which was a PR but not a whole
lot closer to qualifying than my 3:24:05 had been because the standard had been
tightened to <3:05:00.
After Sarah and I got back from
Machu Picchu I started training with Mike Toomey and took another stab at the
marathon. At the Maine Coast Marathon I went through the half in about 1:25,
faded and finished in 3:02:47. I got the qualifier before turning 30 (yay) but
when Boston rolls around I will need to run a much smarter race.
The joy of qualifying and the
disappointment of dropping from 3rd place at the half all the way
back to 8th place at the finish were hard for me to process
together. I could make excuses about how my mixed emotions played into my lack
of running over the past ~2 months but in reality it was mostly that I was (a)
busy buying a house, cramming work in to be ready to leave for Ireland and then
on a 2 week vacation all over the island and (b) lazy. It was mostly the lazy
thing.
While my mileage hasn’t gone up I
have check off some more Massachusetts cities and some more countries in my
goal of running in all 351 Massachusetts cities, all 50 US states and all 197
UN recognized countries. I am now at 62 MA cities, 13 US states and 12
Countries.
Third: Ireland. It was awesome. We
saw ruins. I drank many stouts and a bunch of whisky. I ate a LOT of stew,
brown bread, pie and chips and a lot of carrot cake. I really need to work on
getting my base back in place for my next racing goal.
I haven’t really had one of these
in a while but now I finally do!
I am going to race the mile over
the winter.I have my eye on 5 meets. The plan will be to run the 800m at the first two meets as a tune up and then race the mile at the last three. Dates have not been released for the meets yet but here is my tentative schedule based on when the races were last year:
12/14/13: BU Mini Meet #1 - 800m
12/21/13: BU Mini Meet #2 - 800m
12/28/13: BU Mini Meet #3 - Mile
1/19/14: GBTC Invitational – Mile
12/28/13: BU Valentine Meet – Mile
I’m meeting with Mike Toomey early
next month to put together a training plan and a set of goals for these meets
but for now I’d like to cut 1 second off of each quarter for my first 800m
race. That makes my goal 2:14 for the 800 at Mini Meet #1. I’m also planning on
changing from a Monday – Sunday running week to a Saturday – Friday running
week with 6 days of running and my rest day on Sunday.
I will plan on starting up weekly
training updates again with the hope of putting out an update every Saturday. I
hope this thing keeps me honest to my training so I can actually get some speed
going this winter.
And finally, I can’t keep hiding
from the start line just because my fitness is gone. Racing is a skill and I
need practice so I’m off to run the first USATF NE XC GP race of the year this
Saturday. Cheers and happy running!
