Spring is Blooming

Yes.  Spring is blooming.  The tulips are out.  The grass is growing (well not mine, my yard is full of weeds).  And training is doing the same.

Runcation

4/22/17-4/30/17

4/24-30: 80 miles

The morning before flying out to Arizona I had a 16 mile long run workout.  3 mile warmup, 3 miles around 6-6:05 pace, 6 miles moderate, 3 miles back at 6:05, 1 cool-down.  It went mostly well, first hard 3 were 6:06, 5:59, 5:58, moderate miles around 6:50-55, the next 3 hard ended up being 2.5- 6:02, 5:58, with 1.5 down.  Wasn't feeling that last half mile as I made a 180 turn to head back home, something about finishing hard up Western Avenue wasn't happening.  

The Brutal Sun:

On Tuesday of vacation I had a bulky 8 x mile with 60 second rest.  I thought starting at 7:15 am was early, but not in Arizona... It was already 70 degrees and the sun felt brutal.  I was on a bike path with no shade.  Ironically all these paths follow a "river or canal" but there was nothing but dried up dirt as my scenery without an ounce of water.  I made it through the first 5 repeats all faster than the given pace.  Stopped for longer than my 60 seconds and got gatorade and water at my car after the 5th.  Next thing I knew I puked during number 6.  I called it a day.  No sense of getting dehydrated or ruining my recovery.

That afternoon I escaped the heat a bit and ran up in Sabino Canyon for a shakeout.  

Heading up Sabino Canyon

Almost everyday consisted of running doubles, taking a hike or exploring.  My brother and I went all over--Sedona, Scottsdale, Tuscon, Mt. Lemmon.  Thursday morning I met Amy, who I crossed paths with while trying to qualify for the OT in the fall of 2015.  Thankfully she got me up and moving early for a nice 10.5 miles before it got too warm.  I attended my conference Thursday and Friday (the resort was amazing!), then Saturday night I took a redeye back to NY.  

Hiking near Scottsdale

On the property of the resort where my conference was

The Down Week and Mastodon Challenge 15k

I was told to take a day off the following week and run closer to 60-64 miles.  Wednesday I had another bulky workout-- 3 warmup, 2 miles, 3x1 mile, 2 miles, 2 cool down.  It went amazing and I hit everything faster than instructed.  I was suppose to run Broad Street 10 mile on Sunday, but given the travel and heavy mileage the week prior, I thought staying home and running a local race would be better.  I signed up for the USATF ADK 15k GP without any goals.  The course as I knew was hilly and technical.  The race started off with the first mile going downhill, however I knew this meant we would be climbing soon.  Then we went off road onto a grass stretch that led to a trail with some stone to run on.  Well it had rained earlier so it was slick.  I was forced to run along the stone in the grass and mud.  Eventually we got off and hit an uphill to get onto the bike path.  Once we got off the bike path, another uphill.  The race continued on this way with another trail section and a lot of turns.  I won and finished in 56:37, which I was extremely happy with given the course.  Maybe I would have been ready for a solid Broad Street run... oh well, there is always next year.  I still won some money and had fun with my teammates.  

Willow Street taking 1st place USATF team

Coming in for the finish

  

Later that day, Emily and me went up to a 5k in Clifton Park to support one of our local runners.  Since I already raced that day, I figured Mia would run.  She had been doing some miles with me, she ran 5 with Emily and me several weeks ago sub 8 minute pace, I thought she was ready... or not.  She bolted out the first mile in 6:40, then dropped to a 12:20 since she decided to lay down a few times.  She was done, but eventually we finished!

         Mia smiling before the race

Mia exhausted

I'm feeling good that my training and results have finally started to turn around.  Running has its ups and downs, you just have to remember that and the fact neither will last forever.

“Let it rain on some days,

Let yourself shiver on some cold nights, 

So when it's Spring you'll know why it was all worth going through.”