Illness Break

My legs were forced into a one-week break due to a severe cold. I have not run since last Tuesday, and actually went to the doctor today (although all I have is a bad cold and "pink eye." What this means is that I will probably walk some tomorrow, then do an easy run Wednesday, before returning to normal training. A mile time trial is now at least a week off, unless I recoop faster than expected. Hope to have good news soon!

Track was clear, but I couldn't run!

The snow melted off the track sometime in the last few days, but I have been hammered with a bad cold, and have not run since Tuesday night. Today I felt good enough to go for a walk, so I walked over to the track, walked a couple laps around, then walked home (total of about 2 miles walking). If I feel better tomorrow, I may run a little, but a track time trial will be postponed at least until Wednesday or Thursday, the way I feel now. It was difficult to be on the track without running.

:)

Hope to have more positive updates soon!

Mark

Winter Mile Attempt Aborted

With the February thaw, I had every intention of attempting an informal mile time trial (that wouldn't really count) on Tuesday night in the dark, but upon arrival at the track, there was still a partial snow cover, thus thwarting my attempt. I ended up doing a 4.6 mile run instead, with a few farteks. Today we are supposed to see a few inches of snow, so any additional attempts may be postponed. My logic in attempting a time trial this early is that if I am to have any hope of cracking 5 this spring, I can't be waiting around until mid-or late March for my first mile. I need to get out there soon and at least break 6 with training shoes on, then start approaching the 5:30s by early April, sub 5:20 by May, and then we'll see what happens in June/July, when I could potentially enter some races in Rochester.

X-treme Winter Training

Winter has continued here, with Extreme XC skiing yesterday, and then more moderate XC skiing in a local park today. Yesterday's outing included hilly, heavily wooded terrain, spectacular scenery (including deer), and a few dangerous downhills (see video of a colleague crashing).



Today's 5K ski at Bassett Park averaged about 13:20 per mile, which wasn't too bad, considering I had to break trails, sometimes breaking through a hard upper crust, before sinking into several inches of snow.

We're expecting a "heat wave" this weekend and for the next few days, with temperatures near or above 40, so I expect I'll be doing mainly running over the next several days. I'm a little anxious to get out onto the track, but unless someone shoveled it, even with these few days of warmup, I suspect there will still be a layer of snow or ice on it. If it does clear out, I may just do an "informal" mile time trial, that of course, won't count for anything.



That's it for now....

Mark

Getting My Running Legs Back

I ran two days in a row this week, Monday and Tuesday, 4 miles each run. Monday I averaged 8:17 per mile, but included about 3 fartleks or surges, probably at a 7-minute pace. I felt pretty good the whole way. Then I ran Tuesday, with the intention of running easy.....so I did. I averaged about 8:38 per mile, with no fartleks. Today I took off, then tomorrow I'll be cross country skiing with a co-worker, then back to running Friday, and hopefully Saturday and Sunday. With warmer temps and rain in the forecast, I don't plan to ski over the weekend.

This may seem like a small step, but every workout brings me closer to a sub-5 mile........I think..........