EARLY MARCH

I have a few other things I’m working on, so I’ll (try to) keep this brief.

I’m back to building my mileage – or at least getting back to 70 miles, like I was before my cutback week. Monday I doubled up with two easy runs; 6 in the morning and 8 in the evening.

Last night I jumped on the treadmill for a marathon-paced workout. Rather than progressively dropping the pace (like the last time I did an MP workout) after my 2-mile warm-up, I went right to 6:40 pace. This was one of those workouts where after about 2 miles at MP I started to question how long I could hold the pace. I really didn’t think I could go the 7-8 miles that I wanted. I think the doubts have more to do with the sound of the treadmill than anything else. It’s not like my legs were tired or that I was breathing hard. It’s just that the sound of the treadmill makes it feel like I’m really hauling ass. Anyway, having run 3 miles at 6:15 pace the week before, I told myself I had to at least make it 6 miles. Once I got 5 miles in at MP, my doubts went away. I dropped the pace another tenth of a miles to 6:35 and ran two more miles. Add in a mile cool-down and I had 10 miles total, including 7 at 6:39 pace.

This morning I was trying to figure out where that kind of workout fit into my Grandma’s buildup. In early March I was at the end of my hill phase and ran 10 miles with 7 at 6:43 pace. That makes me think I’m in pretty good shape for TCM. While I don’t have 3 months till TCM, my upcoming phases are going to be more condensed than they were leading up to Grandma’s. Besides, 2 months after that March MP workout, I ran my best half marathon in 11 years.

Alright, this is already getting too long. I’ll close with Brad Lowery’s latest journal entry.

Oh yeah, and here’s a photo of what I’d like to look like when I’m in my 60s – hell I’d like to look like that now. (Left to right; Norm, Paul and Jim)

Quote of the day;

“Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.” – Lewis Carroll