Oh Deer... The Greenway

Day 57

Boston Qualifying Training. I slept in until 7:00 AM, it felt great. My body needed the extra rest as the weekend was almost as busy as the prior week. It was decide the prior evening that the tempo run would take place at noon.

The day was pretty busy and work filled the morning. It made the time fly and immediately lunch time was here. Pulling my favorite running shorts from the laundry room I was off. The tempo run today was a simple, 1 Ez, 4 tempo at 7:30 and 1 Ez. Not bad. Meeting Jay at LTF, we run into Corey. A brief discussion on pacing and Jay’s idiosyncrasies and we were off. The day was perfect for a run, low to mid fifties, clear sky, no wind, beautiful. So much better than what we would have dealt with at 5:30 AM, frost, mid to upper 30’s, good call Jay.

Heading out of the parking lot, my body warms up, it is an easy pace and I am pleased that my shoulder is not bothering me while I run. That was a good sign. It is decided the four miles would be run on the Greenway, a flat, fast 12 miles cut through a wooded area along side a creek. It is a 12 miles I know very well. It used to be a staple of all my runs. I would enjoy seeing the deer and rabbits. Saying hello to the numerous runners you would see along the way, it made the runs easy and enjoyable. Another nice part, there are markers every ½ mile and I have every inch of that trail memorized. A good thing too, with our warm up done, the first mile market was missing! All the recent rain, it must have floated it away. I took me about 20 seconds to find the place that the market was supposed to be, hitting my watch, Jay and I were off.

The goal was 7:30. The first mile seemed a little fast but not overly so, however it was clear we were moving, 6:50! This was not intentional nor was it happening due to Jay and I being ultra competitive. Rather, I think there were several factors, we were both rested, the distance was not over whelming, the weather was perfect, the course is flat… individually all these factors added up to a fast time.

The second mile we do a better job and by the end of the run, we have essentially hit a reasonable time. The overall pace was 7:16, not great, but it felt good. I still am having an issue with my left leg, but it is my assumption because I have been missing the weight days... I need to hit the weights.

While cooling down, John Adamson swings by and we talk about up coming races. John is running in the Ironman National Championship in Clearwater, Florida. He’ll do well, no questions. He asks about my upcoming race. We talk about the concept of running a controlled pace, he is all for it and we share various race stories. This leads to a discussion on long runs and preparation. I share with John that I have taken a new approach, running slower. Long runs are at race pace plus 30 seconds, 45 seconds, 15 seconds. John shakes his head. “I never understood that” he says. “You want to run fast on race day, you need to know how to run fast during training.” This is essentially what I have done every time before. It would be an easy trap to fall back into this pattern. However, I am committed to following this training program all the way through to the end. Today felt easy, so it must be working. Sure my leg hurt a little, but my conditioning was great.

Leaving the gym I head up 400 a few exits to the new theater. Kim and her girl friends are planning an outing to see the “Twilight - New Moon” movie when it comes out and being a good husband, I drive up to buy the tickets for the first showing.

The evening is spent hanging with the boys and doing homework. There is a little bit of trim to paint, and some touch up left over from yesterday. It looks good and I am excited to have the new carpeting coming later this week. Home repair and maintenance is a full time job itself. I could list a 100 jobs that need to be completed. One at a time, one at a time.

Off to bed early, swim in the morning, it will be a test for the shoulder.

Weight… 177, a good surprise.