Marathon Week

Hi there, internet. I had a good week of training, starting off with an awesome run on the marathon course early Monday morning/team brunch afterward.

Before the log, however, I have a brief topic to discuss. As many running internet nerds know, the message boards at dyestat.com are getting transferred over to the ESPN RISE format, which I believe was designed in 1993, then put on ice until now. In addition to being vastly inferior boards from a user standpoint, the RISE boards will damage a very important community dyestat has built.

Now, I'm not going to get on a soap box and try to inspire the 41 people who read this blog to make some grand protest to ESPN. The fact of the matter is that they don't give a shit about running and they don't give a shit about dyestat. Fair enough; they bought dyestat fair and square.

Instead, I just want to let anyone know who would be interested in a new running site that some of dyestat users have created a new site to fulfill dyestat's purpose: www.tracktalk.tk . This is an entirely user-driven, user-created site for the dyestat exiles and anyone else interested in running. Right now, the message board is the only working part, but the people behind the site are working on a content-, coverage- and news-driven front page, much like dyestat of old. Yours truly has been asked to become a regular contributor to the site, so once the front page goes live, don't be surprised to see a weekly column or two!

There are already several hundred users signed up for the site, but we've got a ways to go before it's a truly national community. Head on over and check things out; if you don't like the buzz there, make your own buzz!

Without further ado, my log:

Monday- 7AM- 11 mi fairly steady over the last part of the marathon course. We got dropped off by our support crew (aka Sean Gallagher, who also cooked brunch, Jeff Trethewey, my old roommate from Keene, and Chris Mercurio, a Terrier on the injury comeback trail) somewhat before the 30k mark and ran to the finish, then ran back up Comm Ave to the track house for the race coverage and a delicious brunch, cooked by Sean. All in all, an exhausting but fun day.

Tuesday- AM- 4mi easy, felt fine. PM- 3 up, solo track workout, 2k-1k-1k-2k with a 600 jog. Goal pace was 70-72, no pressing.

2k- 5:53
1k- 2:55
1k- 2:54
2k- 5:59

After the last 2k, I added a 200j to make the entire workout, including rest, 8k in 26:24 (~5:18 a mile including rest jogs). 3 mi down. All in all, a very tiring but satisfying workout.

Wednesday- AM- 5mi easy, felt tire/tight. PM- 10mi easy- felt inexplicably fantastic and had a real tough time running slower than 6:20s. I forced myself to keep it firmly out of the 6:1xs, but barely.

Thursday- 12PM- 7mi easy after a 2hour walking tour of Boston for a class, felt tired. 9:30PM- 7mi easy after work, very tired, then 8x100 in spikes with 100 jog.

Friday- 3:30PM- Squires Fartlek- I'm beginning to think these runs will be the death of me. Workout was about 20min up and down, with the hard part being 1-3-10-1-3-5 minutes hard (with the 10min section and 5min section being harder than the others) with 5min of steady running in between. In the 48 minutes, I covered about 8.5 mi, or something like 5:40 pace. Very tired/heavy today, glad I wasn't doing anything measured. 14 tot.

Saturday- AM- 4 easy solo, shocked at how awful/heavy I felt. PM- 10mi very easy with Rob and his girlfriend, Marita, who is also a Terrier-ette. We did a nice variation of the Farm Loop through Brookline.

Sunday- AM- 10 nice and easy on the Charles with Ken and James, feeling much better. PM- 4 mi easy, some with James, after work- definitely feeling human again.

Tot- 98mi

This next week will be a busy one. I got a job with the US Census (cheaaaa $22.75 an hour!) and the job training goes from Tuesday-Friday this week from 8am-6pm. The good news is I get paid for this! The bad news is it means running at 7am and 7pm for 4 days, which will include two quality workouts. So it goes. The end-on-a-good-note news is that the America East conference meet is this upcoming Saturday and Sunday, and it's at UNH, so I'm going to head home early Saturday morning, then watch the guys and gals of BU kick ass!

My first race is 20 days from today. . . things are getting close, and I'm getting excited!

Have a nice week, everyone-
and visit tracktalk!