Beware the Ides of March

Training Summary
Turns out Caesar isn't the only one to have a bad day on March 15th. Too bad for him he didn't have NCAA basketball as a pick-me-up. The Terps are in the tourney!

Last week was a mixed bag in terms of training. On the positive side, I got in another week with decent mileage. Additionally, I had an OK workout on Wednesday. On the negative side, I raced the New Bedford Half Marathon and completely bombed. The race got out fast and I was in well over my head at the mile, going through the partly downhill segment in 5:05. I knew I had to ease off but was completely unable to recover no matter how much I slowed down. My next few miles were progressively slower, going from 5:20 to 5:30 to 5:40. During that time, my hamstring got increasingly tight and I eventually stopped to stretch at around 5.5 miles. I hopped back in the race when Eric ran by me and paced him for a few miles before dropping out for good at around 9 miles.

The race was a big disappointment, though there are a few positives I can take away from the experience. First, I think it was a bit of a wake up call. In talking to Kit after the race, I told him how I can easily remember being in good shape but rarely remember the hard work I put in to reach that level. He termed this "training amnesia" and I had a serious case of that going into the half marathon. I will still have significant restrictions on my time until I graduate in June and I still want to maintain a long term focus, but I hope to find a way to still do these while upping the intensity a bit to the point where I can be more competitive in races. Some other smaller things that the race reaffirmed are the need to listen to my body during races and the need to get back to doing core strengthening and hamstring exercises. In the race, the initial pace felt too fast, but I kept the pace because I felt I was in the group where I belonged. Obviously I was wrong. Also, my hamstring has been fine since the race, but this summer I learned how quickly that can take a turn for the worse.

Monday
50 minutes
Tuesday
100 minutes
Wednesday
40 minute WU, 3 x mile in 5:22, 5:18, 5:13, 40 minute CD
Thursday
100 minutes
Friday
30 minutes
Saturday
70 minutes
Sunday
110 minutes
Total
560 minutes on 7 runs (about 80 miles)

Holler of the Week
It's been pretty warm lately and I love it. The holler count has skyrocketed but it is obvious that folks are still a bit rusty from the winter. It has strictly been the boring "run Forrest, run"/"what are you running for?"/"put some clothes on" variety but it's better than nothing.

Epiphany Story of the Week
"What do you call it if an older person gets kidnapped? Is it adult-napped?"
- 8th grade student, asked in all seriousness

Song of the Week

When I saw Tapes 'n Tapes a few weeks ago, the opening act was Wild Light. I originally heard about the band when I saw the Arcade Fire play in 2006 and have seen them a few times since then. They just recently put out their first full length album called Adult Nights. This song is the first single from that album and is called California on My Mind.