Adventures in Onionism

I've run my last race of the year: a 5-mile turkey trot in Alexandria, VA. I did as much speed work as I could in the twelve days between Richmond Marathon and the turkey trot (which is not much), but I finished in 32:16. I'm happy I went under 6:30 pace, but more importantly, MRB beat me. He warned me not to start too fast, and then I immediately went and started too fast! I just don't feel like waiting for the people who clearly shouldn't be near the start to slowly filter out--I'll go around the now, please and thank you. So he passed me after about 3/4 miles, but then I kept him in sight the whole way. I felt like maybe I was gaining on him in the last mile straightaway, and then I definitely was gaining on him with about a quarter mile to go when our fellow high school friend was loudly cheering us on and enjoying the intense chase. But I was gassed, and there were too many turns around the school to really know where the finish line was, so he beat me by 10 ...

 Back in January or February, however, when I contemplated trying to break 3 hours in a marathon this year, I didn't think I had enough time to do it in a spring race. I thought I would get somewhere around 3:05, and then try to maintain my consistency over the summer and break 3 at a fall race, either Steamtown or Marine Corps. But then I did end up breaking 3 at Virginia Beach. I signed up for Marine Corps anyway. I figured I should run every big city marathon while I live there at least once (though I never did Oakland or SF.) But then in September I contemplated doing hill repeats for Euchre Bar or speed work for Marine Corps, and I ended up doing mostly neither. Still, I was signed up, and so were 30,000 other people, so I figured it would be fun. My buddy L flew into town to go to a World Series game with his cousin, and he said he'd join me, so it should definitely be a fun time. Except for the weather, as it was supposed to rain a lot. But it was still just a Metro ri...

I ran the Cherry Blossom 10-miler in 65:29 this morning. I was shooting for 65 minutes, so I'm a little bummed I didn't make it, but still generally happy with my performance. I've never run a race this short before, so I have nothing to compare it with. My personal bests are a 1:30 half-marathon and two 3:00 marathons (one just over, one just under three weeks ago) . Clearly you're supposed to be able to run shorter distances at a faster pace, but I don't really know what I can expect of my body in that regard, because I haven't tried very often. I figured that after the 2:59 marathon (6:52 pace) three weeks ago, I'd be recovered and able to go a little faster, and 6:30 pace seemed like a nice round number to shoot for. 90-95 percent of that is probably just the shorter distance, only 5 percent actually getting faster in the last three weeks. I was beat from the marathon for a solid week, and George really does not enjoy doing sub-6 miles on leash, so I d...

It's on. I just ran 6 miles at goal place, took full recovery, and ran 6 miles back at 10 seconds faster than goal pace. Friends told me this was a good test workout to see if you're read for for a marathon. Over the last two months I've been doing consistent weekend long runs of 17-22 miles, slowly getting faster, bringing it down from 7:22 pace to 7:04 pace, and today an average of 6:41. So, I'm feeling pretty good about beating 3 hours at the Shamrock Marathon in two weeks, even though I'm definitely worked after today's run. I've tried to do one real speed workout every week, but I haven't had the wherewithal to get up early enough and go across town to my friends' before-work hardcore workout group, so "workouts" for me usually just mean throwing in a couple fast miles. I've kept up the streak running, meaning I've run 2+ miles every day of the year so far. I ran 269 miles in February, which is my highest mileage February,...

Lottery season is upon us. I've gone through different mental phases in the past 9 months or so since I knew I'd be moving to DC. At first, I decided I would survive mentally by becoming fast again. Once upon a time (2004 or so) I was sort of fast, and I ran a 3:00:23 marathon, and those 23 seconds annoy me, especially since I could have broken 3 had I not enjoyed myself too much from mile 24 to 25. I had ~15 minutes for the last 2.2, but the first mile of that was probably my slowest mile of the entire day, and I couldn't make it up in the last 1.2. To get fast again, I would have to run more road, do track workouts, and I probably couldn't bring George along, since he wants to stop and pee all the time. Somehow, I thought this was what I'd want to do in DC, because if trails suck or are nonexistent, then I have to run road, and if I run road, then I might as well do it fast to get it over with. After thinking that for a few months, I started thinking that ma...