Easy 7

I met up with a few people this morning at Great Falls to get an easy run in. I ended up getting hammered on the hills by Chuck Moeser. It was nice to have somebody to run with for once. I used to run with the Wednesday night group from the store, but now I am on my own almost everyday with the new store.
This is going be an entertaining sports weekend with the Patriots trying to go 16-0 and the Redskins trying to secure a playoff spot. Fortunately for the Redskins they are 9 point favorites and they would have some nice momentum heading into Seattle. Unfortunately for the Redskins they have blown quite a few easy games this year.

Early Long Run

I got in an okay 12 miles today. I ended up averaging around 6:30 pace, but it is not about pace right now. I am just trying to put in the miles without killing myself, which is exactly what I am doing.
I did the run on the W&OD starting out at carmax(a fall favorite) and headed out towards ashburn. There werent too many people out today around 5 even with the fairly nice weather for december. I was hoping to run a little faster, but I am happy that I got in 12 miles. I still have a long way to go before I hit the track in the spring.
I am well on my way to hitting 60 miles as I am sitting at 45 with two days left in the week. I can see next weeks focus being on getting a solid 14 mile run in, which could potentially turn ugly if I get a little too pumped up.

Week 5

Im two days in the 5th week and things are going well. Yesterday I did an easy 6.5 from the georgetown store. It was the first day I felt good after the hard 10 miler at the beginning of last week. Today wasnt as good as yesterday early in the run, but I ended up feeling pretty good during the last few miles when I started to pick up the pace a little bit. I put in a little over 10 at Lake Fairfax on a nice day. It was so nice I busted out the stretching mat and the camera and took my time getting out of there.
Today was relaxing with it being Christmas and all. It was the first Christmas that I have not been at home for, but it turned out to be a good day. I watched a little bit of The Wire and will probably watch some more later along with the latest of the Bourne movies.

54

I ran an easy 11 this morning with Rasheed from his place on the trails up towards Rock Creek. That puts me at 54 for the week and I am really happy with that for my fourth week of base. I am honestly still a little beat from Tuesdays 10 miler but thats what I get for doing a little too much too early.
I actually decided to do a random race during base. I am running a road mile on the 31st and am pretty excited because road miles are few and far between. Hopefully I will get back to the schedule and train until the GW Birthday 10k in the middle of February.
Next week will hopefully be 60, which is straight from the schedule. No uptempo runs planned for next week as I do not want to get carried away and start running 5:30s again.

Balance

I once went on a tirade shortly after I was dumped about focusing all my energy into one thing. That thing being running of course. Sometimes in certain situations we say things we dont really mean, and that was one of those times. Dont get me wrong, running is a major part of who I am, but it is not everything that I am. My training philosophy is based around relaxing and letting things flow. I rarely go out during a workout and drive myself into the ground. So for me to say that I want to put everything into running was really just an emotional outburst. I am all about trying to maximize my potential, but this pursuit is not going to define me.
Balance is the key. I would say that I live a somewhat balanced life, I would like to have more fun but that is tough living out as far as I do. I would recommend not getting to obsessed about one thing. I guess that is what this was all coming to. Some people have religion, some drugs, and then for some reason I have running. But I also have other things that can but should not be neglected as they may not be around when I get over this running thing. The moral of this post is to find something or somebody special but dont let this something or somebody dictate who you are.

First Workout

I did not plan to do a workout today, but the run slowly turned into one. Next time Ill say I am going to run 6 minute pace versus uptempo. I hit two miles in 12 flat and knew sub 60 was not going to be a problem. My first mistake was running the next two miles in 11:22 becuase I always like to come back faster than going out. I ended up hitting 28:45 at the turnaround and thought about possibly going under 57 which would have been way too fast for the 4th week of base.

Well I ended up coming back in 27:04 to finish up 10 miles in 55:49...way too fast this early in my buildup. The one positive from today is that I saw what I thought I was happening physically on my easier days. The rest of the week is going to be fairly easy distance days. Actually the next couple of weeks are going to be easy distance weeks.

Lake Fairfax

I headed back out to Lake Fairfax today to do an easy run and some strides. I started from a different spot this time and picked up where I turned around a couple days ago. It was nice easy 56 minute run, a little over 8 miles but I am just rounding it down to 8. After I finished the run, I did about 3 strides on the turf. I was going to do more but I felt like I was done and tomorrow will be a little more uptempo.
The schedule for this week calls for a 10 mile long run and 55 miles total. That will be an interesting mix, but Ill figure out a way to get in.

Not So Cool

After over 7 years of using coolrunning to record my runs I am moving on. I have that feeling like I just got out of relationship...its kind of funny actually. They switched over to a different site and it is too much of hassle to work with the new site.
As for running, I got in 47 for the week. Todays long run went really well considering how crappy the conditions were. It was raining and freezing and I still got in a good 10 miles in 62 minutes.
I think the plan for next week is to hit around 55 miles but I will have to check my training plan before tomorrows run.

Another Easy Run

My online running log is currently being updated and I am not able to post everyday to that. In the meantime I am going to have to post all the easy runs here until the log is back up. So today I headed out to Lake Fairfax for the first time and checked out the trail there. There is something about running a trail for the first time that is similar to a kid getting a present at Christmas time. I always get near my turn around point and try and convince myself to keep going. I keep wondering whats going to be around the next bend; as if the next section is going to magically be vastly different than what I have been on.
I kept the pace easy the entire time for once. I went out at about 7 min pace and instead of coming back at 6 min pace, I only picked it up to around 6:45 pace.
It looks as if I am going to be on pace for 50 miles for the week unless the storm coming through this weekend is more intense that I am expecting.

5,6,7,8

I ran an easy 8 miles today mainly because I had 5, 6, an7 mile run in the previous runs. I am not running 9 miles tomorrow, but I can say that I definitely thought about it. Todays run went well as I kept it under control. I jogged the first half around 6:45 pace and came back into the wind right around 6 minute pace. 6 flat pace felt like 6:15, which is a good sign early on in base training.

This run reminds me to promote Feist. She has the catchy song 1234 and it falls in line with the rest of her songs. She does a good job with taking basics ideas and putting a little twist on them.

Burke Lake (Easy 7 Miles)

Went out to Burke Lake today for the first time. It was nice to do something new. I got in an easy 7 miles and I was pretty tight from yestredays 6 miler. I did not know there were mile markers out there, but I am glad they were there. I timed a random split and hit a 6:15. This made me feel a lot better because I assumed I was going around 6:45 pace and I slowed down once I saw that split.
The plan for this week is still to hit around 50 miles... 50 easy miles.

Cold

Today was one of those days when I just could not warm up. I am still cold as I am typing this. Running has been going well. Everyday I run, I feel 10x better than I did the day before. This week does not have a goal mileage, but I would like to get in an 8 mile long run by the end of the week.
Base is not the most exciting time but it is a good time to start building mentally for the upcoming year. I have learned from the past that I cannot start off the harder training at full tilt. I have to gradually get ready for a mental peak in addition to the physical peak.
As the base period progresses I will go into more detail about the upcoming year and what I hope to accomplish and how I hope to do it.

5 plus

I did a little over 5 miles from the new store after I got off from work. It went really considering it is the first week of base. I felt fairly relaxed and smooth the entire time. I am slowly starting to get into a rhythm. My plan with work is to get in as early I can and run as far as I can before we open at 10. If I sleep in then I will have to run at night around the city, and I will have to get home fairly late.
Approximately 14.8 miles for the week

5.1

I did an easy 5 miler and actually felt okay for once. I averaged around 6:30 pace and it was easy... which it should be. I felt all over the place with my form, but I dont think it will take long to get back to normal.

So far I have only done 2 runs this week because I have been putting in some long hours at work. I am going to not really worry about mileage for the first two weeks of base. This way I can use next week two get into a rhythm at work and train my body to wake up an hour earlier because I am officially working in Maryland now.