Training Log Archive: Rosstopher

Sam found this picture in a local news write up of the event today. It's very near the start of the race, you can see me sitting right behind Terry, with pretty high elbows trying to protect my space.

C • It's not just the elbows 2

New Bedford Half Marathon. A really great day weather wise and a result that I can be happy with (75:15, 77th place which is the same placement as last year).

This year I had a plan to be more reasonable at the start and really stuck to that plan with Terry and SGB. Our little CSU trio cruised nicely together almost to the top of the hill at 4 miles and then SGB took off... I was trying to be cautious and SGB looked like he was running really fast so I also took off but more sedately. Calves were a little tight (maybe a jog on Saturday would have loosened things up) and I was finding it hard to mentally push through. Physically the running went very well, and pacing better at the start of the race helped a whole lot. It was windier this year, and that was a bit of a challenge too. Managed to take half a gu at about 7 miles and felt very energized the whole race, just not terribly fast. Splits seemed much more consistent, so that's a real good take-away.

I would normally be thrilled with the time, because it is a PR and because I ran a smart race... but I had a personal goal of 73 minutes and so this is good but I will need to put some more work in to improve my half-marathon time.

SGB ran well, also finding the course to be windy today and Terry finished just behind me in 76 something and I think he was happy with that too. Kevin PRed with 79 something and then Sam had a great race too, very proud of her accomplishment especially since she was running alone.

We also were joined by Brendan, Lori, and Presto who came out and did a run along the race course and cheered us on :) it was great to hear friendly voices at the farthest out section on the course!

C • Great race! 10

Rest Day. Sam and I did some errands, hung out with Hilly, and had Thai Food and movie night with the roommates. One of the errands I did was to mail my big sister a christmas present :) Timely as always!

To the work. Beautiful day.

From the work. Still nice out. I weighed myself in the morning and in the evening (the scale is right in front of the bathroom where I change) and over the course of the day I gained two pounds... which makes me wish that I had weighed my lunch.

C • New Bedford 1

Woo, another day hitting the lights almost perfectly.

To the track.

CSU track practice. A fun crowd there today. we started off with another 15 minute session on race psychology, this time focusing on strategies for during competitions. There was a discussion about whether it is better to focus inward or outward during a race and sounds like the studies say that the answer to this question depends on how much racing experience one has.

Anyway, the workout before New Bedford Half Marathon was slower pace with less rest. 1000-1000-800-600-1000-1000-800-600 @ 10k pace. I'm pretty sure that I still did them a little too fast.

3:16 - 3:16 - 2:36 - 1:57 - 3:15 - 3:12 - 2:36 - 1:58

Ran behind Mark and SGB (when SGB arrived) and in front of Terry, Kevin, and Tom, but we all started each interval together. It felt very good. My first run in a new pair of XC flats... I'm trying to wear them in a little before Sunday.

Other than a few more college type people wandering around in a green blaze of glory, the run was pretty normal. It's nice weather for night running.

Run to work. Feeling very much blah, like the weather. Things slowly improved over the course of the day. Still, felt like a rest day kind of day, and plus I needed to run a gel for a long time this evening, so I just took a late shuttle home.

Got a call from the doctor's office to confirm that my blood work shows a very slight anemia (this is a repeated test after a test in early Feb showed the same slight anemia) but I was told that it didn't seem worrisome. I'll just check back in June and see if the problem resolves naturally.

C • If you are trying to deal w... 2

Feeling inexplicably springy and bound-y. Enjoyed the run into work very much and pushed a little harder than normal for the fun of it (oh, and I was running late too, doing the dishes in the morning makes me late).

Sigh, stuck at work late. Got out just before 6 and ran my absolute hardest to pick up my glasses in Somerville.

New glasses snagged and another fast jaunt over to Inman Square to catch a ride with Giovanni and Katia over to CSU training. I was 3 minutes late, but Giacomo was 4 minutes late so I wasn't the worst :) Speaking of Giacomo, he needs to get some A-meet days in this spring so he can qualify for JWOC. Anyone from the Boston area going to the Flying Pig??

Magnus set a really great training in his home digs of Arlington. 3 loops in his neighborhood with an emphasis on choosing routes where climb was a factor. He lives on a neat hill with a good grid of streets and he set some very fun courses. I should scan the loops in to illustrate the types of straight up and over vs around and flat legs.

Giovanni, Katia, Giacomo, Wendy(!) and I ran the orienteering ( I guess Magnus got to run before we showed up) and SGB and Lori stopped in to share in the dining festivities. Magnus is a mean cook.

It's very fun to have trainings in new places like Sudbury and Arlington!

C • Route choices 3

Sam bought us tickets to the A-meet in CA in April. Something fun to look forward to! Now I just need to register us for the meet. Other people flying into San Jose and wanting to share a rental car? On that note, Sam is looking for a ride back to LA after the meet... who should we ask about that?

C • which end of LA? 4

oh man, super wiped out this morning. was very surprised when Sam kissed me goodbye, because it didn't feel like 7 in the morning yet. Finally wrenched myself out of bed at 7:30 because the nurse in the next apartment over was urging the resident to get out of bed. Classic good news bad news scenario I guess... she was very insistent.

merely being awake was hard, but running was actually very pleasant.

Easy week leading into New Bedford Half Marathon. It inspires great joy to hit the traffic lights more or less perfectly.

Spent part of my lunch break writing emails to potential A-meet sponsors. I am hoping that I get better at this. Practice makes perfect, right?