Opening Day is upon us!

Wow, time is flying by.  I can't believe we are now less than 60 days until Boston.  When I qualified for this race in October of 2013, eternity was the only word to describe how long it felt it would be.  Now, it's creeping up on me.  Let's hope they clear a bit more of the snow there prior to April 20.

I'm a little late writing this week, but have a few minutes and thought I'd get these thoughts out before embarking on another busy weekend.

The week started off with a very hard, mile repeats workout.  I have a love/hate relationship with these workouts as I know they are painful, but I get better each time I run one.  I'm getting better about pacing myself in these workouts with the use of specific paces assigned to them.  The self-prescribed pace for this was between 6:16 and 6:27.  5 miles repeats, the first one 3 seconds too fast, the last one 4 seconds too slow.  Yep, just goes to show you that going out too fast impacts even the shortest workouts.  I can live with this, but beat myself up a bit about not hitting that last mile's pace.

Tuesday was a nice easy run.  It was a gorgeous 65 degree day in Naples and this turned out to be one of the more consistent runs I've ever done.  7.1 miles.

Wednesday turned out to be another nice easy run.  I was hurting a bit from the fast work on Monday and decided that I just needed to settle in for the miles.  6.3 miles.

Thursday - Travel/Off.

Friday - Opening Day of the college baseball season.  I've been looking forward to this for a long while now and, of course, the weather takes a turn for the cold.  A week earlier it was 60 degrees and gorgeous.  Now that the season is ready to open, we are going to deal with extreme cold temps.  First thing Friday morning I learn that our weekend series (Fri. thru Sun.) has been altered to avoid playing on Sunday.  This means two games on Saturday.  An appointment with my 'Witch Doctor' to get worked over for the case of Plantar Fasciitis left me with fatigued legs.  The workout was to be 8 miles with 7 at marathon pace.  I got 6.5 miles with 6 of them very near (10 seconds) marathon pace.  I just could not get down to that pace on wobbly legs.  A bit disappointed in myself, but satisfied that I made the best of this.

Saturday - Friday night's baseball game took a lot longer than it should have.  Being on tired legs already and adding a 4 hour baseball game didn't make things any better.  In order to get in my run, I would need to start at about 6 a.m.  That didn't happen and physically felt exhausted.  I started my run by 7 a.m. and two miles in realized that it just wasn't going to happen.  I did 6 miles at a very slow pace and then made my way to the ballpark for 18 innings (actually 19).

Sunday - Luckily, I got to bed at a reasonable time Saturday evening and was able to sleep in a bit.  This also allowed the temps to warm a good bit prior to running.  Even more lucky, this was a step back week in mileage so I only needed 12-13 miles for a long run.  The temp never really warmed, so I started at around 1:00 when there was at the very least some sunshine.  12 miles at 8:00 pace.  I'll take it.  Home to pack and a flight out of town to beat the Snopocalypse, Snotastrophe, Snomaggedon that's heading Nashville's way.

This was another good week of training.  As I look back on it now, it is probably exactly what I needed given the conditions, my health and schedule.  I'm going to have to learn over the next 8-9 weeks how to be more flexible with my weekend running, but still get in my miles.  While I was more than a bit disappointed about Saturday morning's effort, it probably turned out best considering the work that I had to do that day.  Being rigid and dedicated to my training makes change a challenge for me.  While I want to remain extremely focused on each workout, I must be flexible enough to move them around when necessary.

"How many laps did you run?"

4 days away from the beginning of another College Baseball season.  I'm going to find out very quickly if I'm able to manage that work along with training for a marathon.  I've never actually tried to do this, so keep your fingers crossed for me, say a prayer, send me a protein bar, a foam roller and some melatonin!  hahaha

When I'm in Naples and have track work on the training plan, I go to Naples High School.  I spoke with a grounds guy there last May to ensure that I wasn't 'trespassing' and that it was cool that I use the track.  On Monday nights, I get to 'borrow' a lane while the Gulf Coast Runner's Youth Group has their practice.  For the most part, this means that I'm dodging kids that are clueless to their surroundings, but in some way, it motivates me to keep pushing a bit harder.  Heck, if these little guys/gals can get out there to run, this old dude can show 'em how it's done, right?  

This Monday night was no different.  Dodging kids, but it seemed there were more of them.  Maybe even a few kids that were older than I had recalled previously seeing.  After dodging kids for 5 mile repeats, I was catching my breath and putting on my shirt for my run back to the hotel.  All of the kids started gathering in the same general area for their next exercise.  One little girl looks at me with bright eyes and a huge smile and asks, "How many laps did you do?"  My immediate response was that I didn't know, but then we started doing the math together.  "How many laps make a mile? And I did 5 of those and add 4 more laps.  So, 24."  Her eyes light up with amazement as if I've just solved world-wide hunger or something.  I ask her how many laps she's done.  "3", as she shows me with her fingers.  Of course, I immediately think to challenge her to do more.  "I think you should go one more to get to four. What do you think?"  Everyone around can see the wheels turning in this little girl's head.  Before she has a chance to respond I say, "If you want to go one more, I'll do it with you."  Instantly the wheels land on 'Ask Mom'.  We walk over to her Mom and she asks if she can run a lap with me.  I explain to her Mom what's going on.  The other kids are lining up to run the 100.  Her Mom tells her it's her choice and I ask her if she'd rather run the 100 or run with me.  "With you!", she says with no hesitation and off we go.  We start out slow as I had no idea whether she was a poser or a runner.  She's a runner AND a talker!  Instantly she turns into 'Chatty-Cathy'.  Wow!  She's 9, thinks running is tiring, her Mom runs marathons, is only there to get her little sister interested, and would rather cheer, dance or sing.  Oh, and she's pretty good at the cheer, dance and sing.  

We run the first 3/4 of the lap relatively comfortable and as we approach the last 1/4, I tell her we are going to pick up the pace.  Gurlfren dropped it like it was hot!  haha!!!  We jet the last 1/4 lap and finish in plenty of time for her to catch her breath to run the 100.  She is now glowing with energy (as if she wasn't before).  I give her a high-five and thank her.  Her Mom thanks me and little sister asks why I'm so wet.  Before I can answer, Mom tells her she'd be the same way if she was out there running instead of playing with an umbrella!  haha!  Thanks Mom!  (BTW, Mom has only done a couple of 5k's.  I forget the innocence a child and their concept of distance).

Perspective is something I struggle with often.  I find myself getting absorbed into my own workouts or my own day and lose sight of other things.  I had just finished a difficult workout and on one hand was beating myself up for finishing the last mile 5 seconds off goal pace, while on the other hand congratulating myself for working hard and pushing through the pain, when this little girl completely changed my day.  As I ran back to my hotel from the track, I couldn't get the look of excitement on this little girl's face out of my head.  She reminded me of the joy that I get from a good, hard run.  She reminded me of the energy with which I should be running.  Run like a kid at recess!!!

And seriously, how does that happen?  Her timing could not have been better.  Is this a case of me simply having my eyes open to this sort of thing or some sort of divine intervention?  I'm not sure that's for me to decide, but whatever it is, I'm extremely thankful for this reset of my perspective.  Thank you, Ms. Chatty-Cathy.  You definitely had a bigger impact on me than I had on you.  

Ok, so it's now less than 10 weeks until #MarathonMonday.  Here's a little recap of last week's training.  

Monday -  7 Miles at Tempo pace.  Started out too fast, but rather than backing off, I chose to run till I almost puked.  Thankful for a couple of traffic lights that kept that from happening.  5 of these miles averaged sub-6:30. 

Tuesday - 7 easy miles.

Wednesday - 6.5 miles.  This one turned into a 'Progressive' run with each mile getting faster.  1st mile @ 7:40, the last @ 6:47.  

Thursday - Off/Travel Day

Friday - 10 miles followed by 6 innings working the plate in a baseball scrimmage.  Nice quad burn!

Saturday - 19 miles, the last 4 by myself and a bit slower than I wanted, but I was spent.  This was following by 9 innings on the bases of a baseball scrimmage.  Legs were barking by the end of that one.  

Sunday - 9 mile recovery run.  Slowly I'm learning how to do these.  Typically I go way too fast after I loosen up.  This one was pretty steady.  

I feel as though I continue to do a good job of focusing on each workout individually and not getting ahead of myself looking at the full week or even the totality of the training.  

Goals Update:

2500 miles - As expected a couple of weeks ago, I'm slightly ahead of pace on this one and should be for the next 3 months or so.

Cross-training - I'm failing miserably at this.  I have to get this mixed into my routine and can't be slacking.  I know that this will help with injury prevention as well as being able to execute my running workouts.  

New Race PRs. - No attempts and nothing on the calendar.  The schedule is a bit full right now, so these will have to wait until later in the year.  

AHHHH!!!! 11 Weeks till Patriot's Day!

When I started my training plan a week ago, I thought 12 weeks was an eternity.  Wow, that week flashed before my eyes and was gone in a snap.  But, that said, it was a very good week of training.  Having setup my training plan with some very specific paces, one thing that I must do during this training cycle is focus on each workout individually.  I've found that if I'm too busy looking at the big picture, I lose focus on the individual pieces that make that big picture.

Monday kicked things off with a little speed session at the track.  It seems like forever since I've been on the track doing work and it was painfully obvious in the first segment of the workout.  I did what I'll call a pyramid workout.  After a warm-up, I did 400, 800, 1200, 1200, 800, 400 a 400 recovery jog between each segment.  Wow, this was tough, but I stayed after it and was very close on all my paces.  This was a nice way to build some confidence. The next time I do this workout, I'll be adding the 1600's for the additional distance.

		Pace	Actual
Distance
400		1:24-1:29	1:24/1:33
800		2:57-3:05	3:03/3:09
1200		4:31-4:46	4:38/4:38
1600		6:16-6:27

Tuesday was to be a nice, easy run following the track session.  I was a bit sore, but expected that and thought I was taking my time.  After a couple of miles to loosen up, I thought I'd run the remainder around 7:30 pace.  Well, much to my surprise, I was cruising a good bit faster.  I finished the run with just over 7 miles at 7:22 pace, the last 4 miles all below 7:15.  So much for a nice easy one.......

Wednesday was scheduled to be another faster run.  6 miles total with 4 of those at marathon pace (6:49).  NAILED IT!  The first two to loosen up and then dropping it to average 6:34 for the next 4 miles.  This was very 'uncomfortable', as it was supposed to be.  I'm going to try to get outside my comfort zone a lot more during this cycle.  There's only two ways to get faster, right?  Run fast and run fast uphill.  

Thursday, early on in this training cycle, is to be a rest day and a travel day.  As my mileage climbs higher, it will serve as an opportunity to get those extra miles at a recovery pace.  Luckily, this week it was indeed a rest day.    

Friday is turning into an 'acclimation' day.  During the week, I'm fortunate enough to have 70+ degree temps and the only signs of winter are all the seniors clogging up restaurants and traffic.  Geez people, get out the way!!!  That said, on Friday, I'm re-acclimating to winter in Tennessee.  Luckily on Friday, it was 45 degrees and I knocked down an easy 9 miles.  

Unfortunately, the weather wasn't as good on Saturday morning for the long run.  24 degrees at 6:30 a.m. for the start of 18 miles.  Jenifer and I did something that I'm typically not very good at on these long runs, we took it easy.  18 miles at 8:15 pace made for a great first long run.

Sunday I decided to sleep-in.  And by sleep-in, I mean 11:00 a.m. wake up.  Not the brightest thing I've done lately.  I know that when I sleep late, my motivation on a run suffers dramatically.  Add to that it was raining and wasn't going to stop.  I needed 9 miles and headed to the gym to get on the treadmill. A 3 mile death march into this run and I felt like the girl below.  I just wish someone would have punched me in the face and gotten it over with.  I called it a day, grabbed a shower and some lunch, then packed to head back to SoFlo.



Overall, this was a really good week to start off the training cycle.  I finished with just over 50 miles for the week and a couple of really good, faster runs.  I failed on Sunday, but as I stated earlier, I'm trying to focus on each individual workout.  That one is done and I'm on to the next one. 11 weeks till Patriot's Day.

Oh, lastly and most importantly.  WELCOME TO BASEBALL SEASON!!!