Just Another Day in Studville...

Colchester Half Marathon Training Log: 2/27/09

Well, that was a lengthy blogging hiatus, but I had a week-long vacation with the family and it's taken me most of this week to catch up with work at the law practice.  Despite all of that, I'm happy to report that I've managed to maintain a pretty high training level for the past two weeks.  I logged over 90 miles during the vacation and I'll probably end up with about 85 for this week.  

My only regret is the lack of speedwork over the past two weeks.  The problem is that our vacation was a road trip which included stops at Philadelphia, Washington DC and Baltimore.  So, although I logged 12 or 13 miles every day it was done at a slow, site-seeing pace.  It's hard to get fired up for intervals when you're running by all the historic monuments in DC and all the other great sites at our other stops.  I did make a feeble attempt at doing "Reflecting Pool Repeats" between the Lincoln Memorial and the WWII Memorial, but my heart just wasn't in it.

Anyway, I ran my last workout this morning before the big race tomorrow. I did a "short" 10.3-miler at 7:06 pace, which was a little quicker than intended.  But I have to say that the training for this race has been pretty solid and I'm really looking forward to competing tomorrow.  The start time is 10am, which is a good 6.5 hours later than my usual workout time, so that may be an issue.  Otherwise, I'm feeling pretty confident, which is usually a harbinger of a sub-par race.  But we'll see what happens! 

Grand total of 475 miles of CHM training (that's a confidence-booster when the race is only 13.1!) and zero training days left!

Colchester Half Marathon Training Log: 2/15/09

Yesterday was a very hilly 10-miler at a solid 6:51 average pace. The quick pace is mostly attributable to the new download on my MP3..."The Best of Van Halen". Thanks for the tip, O'Toole!

This morning's workout took place in Philadelphia, PA, but I had to limit the distance to 6 miles due to time constraints, and it was done as a sightseeing-friendly 7:22 pace. I sprinted to the top of the stairs in front of the Museum of Art, but I'm not sure what Rocky was so excited about...there really weren't a lot of steps. Anyway, that's the end of a big 78-mile training week. A much longer run is on tap for tomorrow so that I can explore more of the city. This is a very nice town!

Colchester Half Marathon Training Log: 2/13/09

I deeply enjoyed wearing shorts for the workout yesterday with the guys.  Sattler only went a couple miles due to his Achilles and Byram went the same distance with the Sarasota Marathon looming on Sunday, but O'Toole and I continued on for a long run in the orchard hills.

This morning wasn't quite shorts weather, but pretty close.  The Dave Matthews Band accompanied me (via the MP3) for a long and brisk run.  The pace got a nice boost when I stopped at the GHS track to do several repeat 300's with 100m recoveries.  300 meters was the farthest I could run at flank speed since the first turn still had plenty of snow and ice (what's up with that?).  I ended up covering 13.1 miles at 6:55 pace.

Next week I'll be training at remote camps in Philadelphia, Washington DC and Baltimore.  The kids are out of school and we're going on a road trip that will include those three cities.  I'm looking forward to trekking through Baltimore's Inner Harbor, doing laps around the White House and, of course, sprinting up those steps to the Rocky Balboa statue.  I'll try my best to do some posts remotely.

That's 309.2 miles of CHM training and 14 training days 'til C-Day!

Colchester Half Marathon Training Log: 2/11/09

A rather solid workout this morning.  When I checked the thermometer I was pleased to see a downright tropical temperature reading of 34 degrees, so I decided to get in my first real speed training since Disney (which was, sad to say, a full month ago). 

The route was a bit hilly: Overlook, Tall Timbers, New London Turnpike to the Georgetown condo's and back.  I decided to forego the predictability of my playlists and set my MP3 player to "shuffle" mode and pushed the pace hard on every other tune.  I love this kind of speed workout since there's music involved and there's no need to keep fiddling around with your watch.  However, the downside with shuffle mode is that the right tunes often don't come up at the right time and I found myself continuously hitting the "skip" button.  For example, Debbie Gibson's Lost in Your Eyes is not the ideal tune for an uphill interval.  But I ended up covering the hilly 12.4-mile course in 6:50 pace, so I'd say that I'm in relatively decent shape with race day coming up quickly. 

I'm happy to announce that the entire Team Supreme squad will be training together tomorrow morning, although it will be a slow 20-minute workout since that's all that Sattler's Achilles tendon can manage at the moment.  Hey...you take what you can get, right?

That's 282.8 miles of CHM training and only 16 training days 'til C-Day!

Colchester Half Marathon Training Log: 2/6/09

The temperature for the workout this morning was a whopping 7 degrees...which was a whole 3 degrees warmer than yesterday morning!  That obviated any chance for some quality speedwork, so it was a long run this morning instead.

I continued my efforts to fight off some serious New England winter training blues by trying something new...Mozart on the run.  I eschewed my usual pop/techno/R&B playlist and tried out Mozart's Symphony No. 41 "Jupiter" for today's workout, and I have to say I really enjoyed it.  That classical music does trigger a nice state-of-mind for a long and easy run.  It also made for clearer thinking during the run. 

On the downside, I certainly wouldn't bring Wolfgang along for any speed workouts.  Despite my effort to keep a sharp pace on a flat course I could only muster a 7:30 pace for the 12.3-mile trek, which I attribute mostly to Symphony #41.

I've got a couple long-and-hilly runs on tap for the weekend.  Hopefully things will warm up a little next week so I can start some solid speed training.

That's 221.3 miles of CHM training and 21 training days 'til C-Day.

Colchester Half Marathon Training Log: 2/5/09

After complaining about the sub-20 degree weather in my last post, Mother Nature responded by serving up sub-five degree weather this morning!  But instead of cowering under the blankets inside, I thumbed my nose at M.N. and logged a tough 12-miler with a heavy emphasis on hills (Chestnut Hill, Knobb Hill, Sunset, Woodland and the mother of 'em all, Belltown Hill).  However, I could only muster a 7:40 pace with all of the climbing and frigid temp's.  Still, it was a solid workout and I patted myself on the back afterwards for not skipping it.  That was after I regained feeling in my hands, of course.

Just think, a few short months from now we'll be complaining about how hot it is!

That's 209 CHM training miles and only 22 training days 'til C-Day!

Colchester Half Marathon Training Log: 2/4/09

Ah, the challenges of training through a New England winter continue.  After attending to all of the snow maintenance duties that last night's 4-or-so inches of snowfall triggered I only had time for a 30-minute workout this morning.  And despite my best efforts to make it a short-but-fast one, the snow-slick backroads limited my pace to 7:10, which was good enough for only 4.1 miles. 

My resolve and commitment to stay positive through the winter training is slowly starting to peter out.  I have been buoyed by the longer daylight hours, but the sub-20 temp's in the morning and all of this snow (which has stubbornly refused to melt) is starting to take its toll.  On the bright side, I have been able to stave off this sense of winter training despair much longer than I have in the past.

As the U.S. government desperately attempts to stimulate the economy, I have passed my own training stimulus bill by switching my primary focus from Boston to the Colchester Half Marathon which is slated for 2/28.  It seems that Boston is still too far off for me to get overly fired-up about it and I need to get fired up about something now (please see the "despair" pity-party above) or I am in danger of joining the other half of the team who is on the DL, except that I would end up on the psychologically disabled list.

So...my training log has been re-named the "Colchester Half Marathon Training Log" until March.  By focusing on the CHM there's a stronger sense of urgency.  Plus, since I'm still in solid shape from my Disney training and it's a local race, I'm going to assume that I may have an outside chance of scoring a "W" (if not in the overall category, then at least in my age group, maybe), which is always a nice motivating factor.  Can't quite say the same thing about Boston.

Anyways, 196.9 CHM training miles and only 23 training days 'til C-Day!

TS Road Trip: The 2009 Millrose Games at NYC

It was a late night for me, Byram and Sattler on Friday, but it was well worth it as we treked down to New York City for the 102nd running of the Millrose Games.  We were treated to some inspiring performances by some top-notch high school, collegiate and professional T&F athletes.  It was the first time I've ever attended a track meet strictly as a spectator and it's an experience I won't soon forget.  Bernard Legat made his victory in the Wanamaker Mile look rather easy, and I enjoyed watching two runners break 4:00, indoors no less!

Sattler was a tremendous help as he proved to be a source for a continuous stream of cynical comments.  He has also provided us with a brief list of different topics of discussion.  Please note that these are a list of topics for the trip there only.  He fell dead asleep within 15 minutes of the return trip, so he cannot offer any record of those discussions (thank God):

Green fund
Yankee stadium
Homonyms
3 pin race bibs
Driving wout a coffee lid
Mike getting hosed by grr
Florida residency
Milrose gameson espn
Someone get me out of this car
Power bars
Mike eating all the wheat thins
Mikes knowledge of uconn womens basketball team
Is rick injured??
Tapanzee bridge
Who's henry hudson?
Don't eat power bars without a drink
Definition of a quirk
WHAT time is last race???
Art loves ehmon coghlin, and boy scouts
Please mike, no more attorney jokes
Melting disney medal for nature

And if we can ever get Sattler and O'Toole off the DL over the next 12 months then we'll work on putting together a solid 4x800m team for the '10 Millrose Games!

Please note for the record that I most certainly did not eat all of the Wheat Thins.