DRAGGING

About this time of year, winter starts to drag, base-training starts to drag, work starts to drag (wait, that’s year-round)...anyway, you get the picture. That’s one of the reasons I always look forward to the Winter Carnival Half Marathon. It’s a week earlier than normal this year, but it’ll still provide a nice benchmark as to the level of my current fitness. As you can tell from past results, I can almost pencil in a 1:24 and change.

2/4/06 1:24:45
2/5/05 1:24:27
1/31/04 41:40 – shortened due to weather
2/1/03 1:27:59 – different (tougher) course due to construction
2/2/02 1:24:55
2/5/00 1:32:03

However, in reality I’m not so sure what I can run. Training has been going rather well, with 7 of the last 10 weeks being between 76 and 90 miles. However, last year at this time, I was busy stringing together 95 and 97 mile weeks.

Comparing last December/January and this December/January, one thing jumps out at me; I’ve done a ton more tempo runs this time around – everything from 3 miles at 6:20 pace to 8 miles at 7:10 pace. For that reason, I won’t be surprised if I run a minute (or two?) faster. As with any race, a lot depends on the weather – especially since we’re talking about 13.1 miles in January in Minnesota.

In any case, this race should give me some feedback as to whether I need more mileage or if “low” miles with tempos is working.

Quote of the day;

“My whole feeling in terms of racing is that you have to be very bold. You sometimes have to be aggressive and gamble.” – Bill Rodgers