Weekend (May 17 and 18)

Saturday-

I left the house about 1:00 pm and planned to do 10-12 miles. It had rained pretty hard in the early AM, and then was kind of muggy, but by the time I got out it was dry and breezy. It was about 68 degrees with a cool breeze and sunshine. Pretty near perfect. I started on the roads with a brief stretch on the Danvers-Topsfield Rail Trail and ended up making a nice 12-mile loop. I finished up with 6 strides that were a little longer than 100m, but my legs are feeling great. It was hard not to feel good with the day as beautiful as it was.

Sunday-

I got up early (5:45 am) and put on some coffee. I drank a half a cup black and then grabbed my ipod and Garmin and headed out. I have a nice 14-mile loop that goes through Hamilton, Wenham and Ipswich on mostly quieter roads. Started out between 6:50-7:00 for the first few miles, then wound up in the 6:20's for the last few with a 6:08 for the last mile. The music helped keep the pace honest during the middle miles.

Both days the pace averaged to a 6:34/mi.

I ended up with my first 70 mile week of the year (Sunday-Saturday) for last week, and kicked this week off in the right direction with 14 yesterday.

Focus is on maintaining and increasing mileage; continuing strides (see this month's Running Times - the SPEED issue); and upcoming races:

Melody Miles 5M, Hamilton, this Saturday;
Outdoor track 5000m, Late May or June?;
Ribfest 5M, June 15;
Loon, July 6;
Yankee Homecoming 10M, July 29;
Beverly Yankee Homecoming 5k, August 7
Burlington 15k, August 31;
Lone Gull 10k, September 14;
Hartford Marathon, October 11