1st of the long prep runs for SF

Dead legs from the start, heat, phew. I was OK for 13 or so but the last 5K wow. I hate to more or less bonk on a training run but things happen, particularly on the first long run on a hot day. Bless my hydration pack or it would have been worse. The rest of this week will be one speed session, a couple of recovery runs and some days off to regroup. Then Sunday a 10K,and back to building milage for 3 weeks.

Training

Now I remember, its not the marathon that's tough (B.S.) its the training. Actually its all hard for me, but I'm still on track. My long run is now 14 1/2 and speed sessions are 3 miles of work (5 800's & 2 400's). I want to get up to a 20 miler and be able to do a Yasso 800 workout with 9 weeks to go. If I can end up with a few 20's and Yasso workouts by game day plus some 40 - 45 mile weeks I should be OK.

Danbury 1/2 - April 11,2010 - Kaboom

Didn't feel good, should have stayed home. Oh well. At 6 miles I though about picking up the pace and shooting for sub 2 hours. At 8 1/2 I was dehydrated and headed toward a bonk. Call it a bad day and move on.

Bunny Boogie, Darien Ct, 04/03/2010

24:47; better than the 25:12 disaster of last year and a minute off the 23:45 of 2 years ago. I ran on fairly dead legs so not a bad effort, things are looking up. Sunday I did a hilly 13.35 from the house and it was a struggle the last 2 1/2 but not monumental. Next Sunday is the Danbury 1/2 and then the training starts for real for San Francisco

WSSAC - 4 Miler - Jennings Beach, Fairfield,Ct

Threshold races at this time of year are not something I look forward to running. After a long winter with no speed work and limited anything else intense I'm just not ready. Add in some extra pounds, reduced mileage, paranoia,the other usual excuses and I was really dreading the rescheduled Warren St. race today. Since I'm slow to begin with I can get pretty dark in the low expectations department, so today an 8:50 pace would have been good enough to keep me off the ledge. I was around 25:30 at 3 miles and even though I ran out of air in the last mile I finished at 34:22 (8:36), 4 whole seconds better than last year's 10th place in age group finish. I grabbed a bagel, shot the breeze with a friend, hopped in the car and drove to Westchester with Ray Davies doing "Kinks Choral" and Amy Winehouse saying no to rehab. Later when I saw the results I found out I was second in age group. Obviously with these kind of times I don't get many trophies and I had just left one on the table, literally. All in all (I did another 5+ in the afternoon) I feel like things are looking up for S.F. Got the Bunnie Boogie 3 miler in 2 weeks and the Danbury 1/2 in 3. Long runs, some tempos, speed work, and a few races that's the plan.

WARREN ST 4 MILE CANCELLED

Sunday was to be a test of aerobic fitness at this 4 miler I've run the last few years, but the massive windstorm Saturday forced it to be cancelled (today it was rescheduled for next week). So I did an 11 1/2 mile long run dodging fallen trees and downed power lines everywhere. What a mess. Temp was high forties and it rained the whole time. All in all a good training run, at least on the mental side. Check out the storm at one of my favorite spots to run, Rye Play Land.

Am I really gonna run San Francisco

The worst of winter is over and I'm thinking more and more about 26.2 in San Fran in July. With no long runs in ages I tried a little 11 miler today and that seems like something I can build on, so far so good. I also tried some speed work last week before snow covered the local tracks and while I only punched out 4 x 400 the workout had a decent feel to it. Add in a few tempo runs with some decent pop and maybe I'm on my way. BUT, lest I forget I'm also slower and fatter than I've been in a long time. AND OLDER

Let the games begin.