It’s been a while …

Hmm … Has it really been nearly two years since my last post?  Hard to believe; visions of blogging grandeur fell by the wayside.

Well, I am still running and have had some ups and downs.  Ran Boston 2010 on not nearly enough training.  I was hoping, based on my lame training, to luck into a sub 3:31 and qualify for the next two years.  I was on pace but choked the last two miles.  I ended up at 3:32:03 and promised myself “No more Bostons.”  I really hate that race.  Too many people and the course just beats me up.

An upside from my lame training though, was that on the one 20+ mile run I did manage before Boston, I hooked up with a group of runners on the Charles River bike paths at about mile 18 of that run and now I run with them about once a week.  It is nice to have some company and conversation.  We call ourselves the Boston River Rats.  A good group of people and we have about 20 who will run the Hyannis Half Marathon.

I am trying to push myself to run faster and race more often this year.  I have set a goal of one race a month … since I don’t plan on doing a marathon anytime soon, I need some goal to keep my going.  My next race is a Thanksgiving Day 5k.  I run it every year and have managed to win my age group every year.  Let’s see if this year holds true to form.

With that in mind, I’ve started to do some intervals on the track to get myself into a little better short racing shape.  In my first race (my one in October) in a while, I ran a 5k two weeks ago – not particularly fast (20:22) – and would like to run under 20:00 at this Thanksgiving race.  There are some guys in my age group running mid 18:00s and I’d like to be competitive with them.  The only way to get to that level is to race more and do some interval work on the track (and keep the mileage up).  Can my body handle it?

I have found that racing and track work do take a pretty good toll on my body.  My achilles was, and still is, sore after this most recent 5k and after yesterday’s track work (8 x 400 at 87, 86, 87, 86, 85, 85, 86, 85 – the goal going in was to run 90s so I was happy with how that went).  As usual, I am not stretching enough.  Gotta get better with that.   But, maybe the more frequent racing and track work will force my body to adapt and get stronger.  I hope that is how it works out.

Today was an easy 7.2 in 1:02:28.  Achilles sore and body stiff from yesterday … crawled along my route but by the end the Achiles was feeling a bit looser.