Wheeler Farm Loops

AM - 19 miles. Long Run w/ 10 mile AT Progression in 54:18 (5:26/mi avg) - Splits: 5:38, 5:37, 5:32, 5:29, 5:27, 5:26, 5:20, 5:18, 5:10, 5:12.

Met Fritz, Nate, and James at the Legacy Trail for this run. The plan was 8 miles easy, then 10 miles dropping from 5:40 to 5:10 and don't go faster than 5:10 under any circumstance (per Coach Andrea's instructions). One more mile to cool down. So this was pretty much right what I wanted. Fritz got out a little ahead of me during the first half of the tempo and gave me a target to chase down over the last few miles. We ended up finishing together. Nice effort by everyone once again this morning.

AM - 8 miles. Horsepark.

PM - 8 miles. Horsepark.

Andrea was browsing through Jeff Edmonds' archives and came across this post: Passion and Discipline. I read this a few times already today. Fantastic writing. I didn't want it to get lost in the comments.

AM - 8 miles. Cowpark.

PM - 6 miles. Wheeler Farm. So many animals!

AM - 10 miles. Horsepark. Did a handful of 15-20 second accelerations on the way back.

Flying down to Phoenix after work tonight for Thanksgiving. Skipping the usual big extended family gathering in Connecticut (too much travel, too close to the marathon). I'm going to run a 10K in Mesa tomorrow morning. I know racing 10 days out from CIM would do much more harm than good, so I'm just going to treat it as a workout. Have some fun... my dad is going to run as well. Around 31:00-31:30 would be ideal, and a sub-max effort should be enough to win a turkey. Andrew Lemoncello has run in the 29s several times here in the past couple years, but I saw his name on the entry list for Fukuoka, so I'm guessing he won't be around. Now that's a marathon I'd really love to run someday. They pull you off the course if you fall behind 2:45 pace! If women were allowed in the race (its men-only), it would provide excellent incentive to hit their OTQ time.

Happy Thanksgiving! 

It was 60 degrees and sunny at the starting line this morning... I love coming down to Arizona for the winter holidays.

As I said yesterday, the goal today was to get in a good workout and to be disciplined enough not to hammer, because that would serve no purpose with the marathon so close. I came in exactly at the faster end of my target range. Good thing I didn't kick as hard as my Dad, or else I'd be in trouble for overdoing this one.

Some other guy went out with me (actually, ahead of me in the first mile). Not sure why he thought that was a good idea. I dropped him during the second mile, then caught some of the wheelchair racers. After about 2.5 I was all alone. Kept the pace under control, dinked around a little too much with the crowd at the end, then ran back along the course to the 5 mile mark and met up w/ my Dad (who was being paced by Andrea). His goal was to break 48 minutes and he ended up running 47:20... his final sprint was the stuff legends are made of. If I could learn to kick like that...

RESULTS

Fun morning. Won a turkey. Cooking it now. Bring on CIM.

If you don't count 10K splits in half-marathons (which don't count because they aren't certified), this was actually a 10K Road race PR. I'm in much, much better shape than when I ran the 10K in Kansas City earlier this fall, that's for sure.

Course was 2 loops, each loop with one (gradual) 50 foot climb.

Dad (in yellow) ended up beating the turkey...

Ariana Hilborn ran a great race (35:05), but she turned down her turkey because she's vegan. Crazy! Meat is the second best type of prize (after cash).

Splits...

AM - 8 miles. First 4 w/ Andrea.

PM - 8 miles. Ocotillo loop.

Golfed 18 holes with my Dad this afternoon. I had 8 pars... and 8 THREE-putts! My short game needs a little consistency / precision boost.

Weather was awful again. I think it only hit 72 degrees today.

AM - 8 miles. This was my favorite run of the year. I paced Andrea to a 17:20 3-miler (her race report). My job was to keep her at 5:47 pace and our average ended up at 5:46.X! She ran really tough and I'm really proud of the progress she made this fall. Smart training and dedication even when the odds were stacked against her. Couldn't be happier!

I paid $35 to enter at the last minute because in my mind, that makes it legitimate. I didn't want any asteriks next to her time because I was a bandit. Also, the race supported a great cause - building a new soccer complex for kids.

PM - 8 miles. Ocotillo loop w/ Andrea riding on one of my parents' cruiser bikes.

This picture was worth the entry fee, if not ten times more :-)