April 7

AM: 8 miles easy recovery

PM: weights, core, stretching

Recovery day after yesterday's race. I ran through Rock Creek PArk in the morning, which was sloppy after all of the rain we've had over the last few days. I took a nice spill a couple miles from home when I hit a slick patch of mud.

After work, I just went to the gym with Valerie. It felt good to stretch out; I didn't really do any stretching at all after the race yesterday.

April 6 - Cherry Blossom 10-Mile (91 miles/week)

AM: Cherry Blossom 10-mile, 53:17 (PR), 25th place, 15 miles

The weather was pretty crappy this morning. When I got up, it was 40-45 degrees and raining. fortunately, the rain let up while we were warming up. The goal was to run under 54 minutes, and if I was having an awesome day, under 53 minutes.

I knew this was going to be a fast race coming in. Patrick and I lined up next to Bill Rodgers, which was kind of neat, and then went out in the first mile together; a pack developed shortly thereafter. I felt into a group of guys that included Klim and a few Pacers as we ran the first 5k around Hains Point. There were a few surges thrown in, including a couple modest ones by myself, which was really everyone just feeling the pace out. At about 4.5 miles, the pack surged ahead, and I realized I may have gotten a little excited in the first few miles and was going to have to hang on for the second half of the race (I dropped back just before the 5-mile mark, which you can see in the video). At this point, I was almost on pace for a sub-52 finish, which I thought was a little aggressive for me at this point. I'm still glad I went for it, because I guess you'd never know otherwise.

So, instead, I compromised, dropped back, opting instead to pull in the stragglers, which worked well enough. The fast pace in the beginning made the second half pretty uncomfortable. I thought for sure I was going to vomit around mile 8, which isn't a feeling usually associated with a 10-miler. This makes sense, because my 5-mile and 10k splits (26:13 and 32:47) weren't far off from races I've run all-out in the last few weeks. 

At 10k, I caught one guy who clearly went out way too fast and was running backward. I spent the next few miles trying to catch Pacers' Michael Wardian (I've never been close to beating him before, but he'd raced two marathons last weekend, including winning the National Marathon in DC...and his shoe was untied). Despite his apparent handicaps, I still didn't catch him until we were coming back across the Memorial Bridge with about 2k to go after slowly closing the gap with about . At this point, we were running right into the wind, and I tried to push through it and put some distance between us. 

But it didn't come to be. About a half-mile later, he caught back up to me, and we fought back and forth until the 400m mark, at which point I had nothing left, and he passed me just before we made the turn to the finish (Dwyer said this was like watching two turtles trying to outkick each other). I had no kick whatsoever, and my guess is this was because of the fast pace at the beginning, fighting some wind, and trying to drop another runner with a mile to go. 

Even though I wasn't happy with the way the finish went, I still ran a PR by more than 1:40, so there's only so much to complain about that. I plugged my time into a running calculator, and this is one of the fastest races I've run for any distance. I couldn't have asked for anything better going into Boston, especially since the time suggests I might be under 2:30 if I play my cards right on Marathon Monday in two weeks. 

Without the wind today, and perhaps if I'd gone out slightly more conservatively (though not by much), I could have finished stronger and dipped under 53 minutes. I lost focus some in miles 7 and 8, and my splits reflect that. One positive is that instead of getting slower, I rebounded and finished with two miles that were slightly faster, albeit slower than any in my first 4.

Klim and Patrick finished pretty well, both running PRs, and Steve Crane, who was well ahead of us (in 49-something) was the top American. So a lot of people, including myself, had good days today. This is always the fastest race in DC ( a Moroccan won it in 46:15 , with the next guy a just a couple of seconds behind).

My stomach was killing me afterward, especially my colon and everything going through it. I couldn't eat anything until 2:00 in the afternoon. I rested, drank a bunch of Gatorade, and took a 90-minute nap. I woke up spread-eagle on the bed and drooling. I was out pretty cold. As I write this after dinner, I'm feeling physically better and feeling more confident about Boston.

Splits: 5:16, 5:06, 5:13 (wind), 5:16, 5:20, 5:21, 5:27, 5:28, 5:20, 5:22. 

I got 53:14 for my total time, so we'll see what my chip time says. 

Also, fellow GRC'er Peter was on hand, and like St. Patrick's Day, he put together a pretty badass video for the race, which I'm attaching to this post. 

April 5

AM: 7 miles easy, strides

An easy out-and-back on the Capital Crescent. I felt light and fresh, like I had to hold myself back a little bit. Cherry Blossom is tomorrow--I've been looking forward to this race for a while now. The 10-mile is one of my favorite race distances, though the forecast says its going to be rainy and cold. 

April 4

AM: 11 miles moderate

PM: 6 miles easy

Rock Creek Park both in the morning and after work. Felt better in the morning, but tired in the evening. 

April 3

AM: 9 miles easy

PM: core, stretching

I got in a little over an hour in Rock Creek Park in the morning. Last night's workout didn't kill me, but I don't think I got enough sleep or enough fuel back in me afterward. I was tired and hungry all day.

I had to drive to Laurel after work to pick up Valerie's car from the shop. As a result, I spent almost three hours in the car yesterday, which usually gets me pretty grumpy and foul. By the time I got home, the last thing I wanted to do was go running in dark, 38-degree rain. I figured I'd pick my battles, so I did some core work and stretched out, opting instead to get in bed earlier.

I'm pretty sure this was a good call. I don't intend to drastically cut my mileage that much before the marathon, so I'm probably better off leaning toward cautious with Cherry Blossom and Boston coming up in such a short window. Above all, I want to feel mentally and physically fresh going into both. At this point, a lot of the work that will be done before Marathon Monday is just going to be maintenance. Cherry Blossom on Sunday should be the last really fast effort before Boston, aside from a few tune-up workouts between the two races.

April 2

AM: weights, core, stretching

PM: 14 miles @ MP, plus small warmup and cooldown, 15 miles

Because of the longer workout in the afternoon, I opted to go to the gym in the morning to loosen up and get in a good lifting session.

After work, I met Dwyer and P. Murphy at the Line for our tempo run. I set up cups with Gatorade, and we ran six laps of the Meadowbrook stables loop (2.36 miles). The pace overall ended up being 5:53, starting slower and finishing a little faster. This is right at the pace I want to hit in the first half of Boston, so it was just perfect.

Splits: 14:04 (5:58), 13:56 (5:54), 13:54 (5:53), 14:04 (5:58), 13:45 (5:49), 13:50 (5:51).

Honestly, I'm not sure how to gauge the effort. I know I wasn't fresh afterward, but I was also never really taxed. I'd venture to say that I felt better in the second half than the first. I'm pretty confident that I can maintain this or better it for another 12.2 miles, especially with a taper in the next two weeks. That was the idea going in; this could have been an easy workout to push harder than I should have.

The splits for me were uncharacteristically all over the place. I can attribute this to 1.) trying to drink and run, and 2.) the dark, which always seems to throw off my depth perception and, thus, also my sense of pace.

April 1

AM: 6 miles easy

PM: 11 miles easy

Ran in Rock Creek Park in the morning while it was cold and misty. By the time I met Klim after work for a run at Cabin John, the weather was well into the 70s--awesome.