Since November

I've started 3 separate blog updates, none of which has been completed, which is a bit symptomatic of my life right now, but I digress...

I trained a little more than I ought to immediately following Bay State, with not much racing on the horizon and a body that was asking to recover.

I ran a 5k on Thanksgiving morning (cold!!) in NJ and got smoked by a former William and Mary runner visiting his girlfriend for the holiday. He told me afterward that he was trying to break 8 minutes in the 3k that winter, so that made me feel 'better'.

My running fizzled a bit just before the end of the year, and I took some intentional time in January to heal up and let the competitive fire return. I probably ended up missing more days in January than I needed to, but my Friday appointments with Kevin Hankens kept me involved with running on at least a weekly basis.

By the end of January, I had a few solo runs under my belt, and was making plans to race at New Bedford and the Upton 15k.

New Bedford came quickly and I was a bit under-trained, but was happy to scrape out a low-1:15 and finish in the top 10 masters. I rode down with Kevin Hankens, who ran a significant PR (1:12:45) and beat me even more soundly than I had expected. I confessed to him afterwards that my drubbing at his hands was motivating to get my butt in gear.

I had a couple good weeks between New Bedford and Upton and ran better at the 15k. My hope had been to run close to my 2000 Tewksbury Run Your Turkey Off time, when as a spry 24-year-old just a few weeks removed from my debut marathon, I had kept pace with North Shore Strider Joe Shairs most of the way and finished in 52:51.

At Upton, I had people to chase the whole way, and a pack of Masters that caught me at 10k kept me honest all the way in. I ended up cracking 52 and finishing as 3rd Master.

Since then, I've had a couple decent workouts, kept the mileage mostly in the 60's, and got a good race-beating from Tim Van Orden at the Merrimack River Trail race last weekend.

Getting ready for the James Joyce Ramble on the 28th of this month. I finished 2nd last year in the US Masters' Championships in 33:02, running much better than I expected. I know the field will be good and I'd like to run close to that time again.

This week, Heather and the kids were in NJ, so I got some extra runs in and will likely wind up with an 80-mile week. I'll see how I respond to the spike in volume and if I'll have the room in my schedule to split the difference and stick around 70 mpw for a bit.

Gearing up for Mt. Washington I want to get some more time on my feet than I had last year. I think I could run 1:10 if all goes well.