Goin' Down

Training Summary
After four weeks of relatively high mileage, I decided to take a down week last week. I was not feeling particularly tired, but I figured it was prudent when keeping long term goals in mind. Additionally, I knew that my week was going to be especially busy so it fit in perfectly with my schedule to do it now rather than later.

My runs on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday weren't all that great. I felt a little worn out and had a tough time getting out the door. It is strange, but I have a harder time motivating myself to run in weeks where I am doing less mileage. Despite the fact that all literature on training says that recovery is the key to good training, it never seems that useful to me to go out and just run for 50 minutes.

I am starting to round into decent shape and have a few solid workouts under my belt, so I need to begin being a bit more structured and purposeful with my running when I resume training at full volume this coming week. I've been reading quite a bit about training theory and hope to apply it to my personal training schedule. Some things that I think will be beneficial include varying the types of workouts I do a bit more and adding in a third workout each week consisting of short efforts of 100 to 150 meters with full recovery to build my speed back.

Originally, I was planning to run the Groton 10K on April 26th. It turns out that the Puma Street Meet is the same day and I won't be able to go since I am hoping to take a group of Epiphany kids to participate in that. Instead, my new plan is to go down to New Jersey to visit my family and run the Newport 10K on May 9th. From looking at past results, it is a competitive race and a fast, flat course. My 10K PR is weak (31:50, though I ran 31:27 at USATF-NE XC Championships in 2006 on a course they say is 9845m), so I am hoping I can break my first college PR since graduating.

Monday
50 minutes
Tuesday
30 minutes
Wednesday
70 minutes
Thursday
40 minute warm up to the track at Milton Academy, 3 x 1200 with 400 jog rest in 2 minutes (3:53, 3:51, 3:49) 400 in 75, 6 x 200 with 400 jog rest in 2 minutes (33, 32, 34, 31, 31, 30), cool down to 100 minutes
Friday
30 minutes
Saturday
70 minutes
Sunday
110 minutes
Total
460 minutes on 7 runs (about 65 miles)

Holler of the Week
Nothing really stood out this week. One thing I noticed was that, with the marathon right around the corner, everyone keeps asking me if I am running Boston. In most people's minds, if you aren't doing the Boston Marathon you aren't a runner. Oh well.

Epiphany Story of the Week
We had burritos for dinner on Wednesday and I managed to convince the kids at my table that I used to work at Taco Bell after one of them asked me how I learned to wrap the tortilla so well. The moment I mentioned Taco Bell, one of the 5th grade girls at my table blurted out "My mom's friend's water broke in Taco Bell!" She then went on to say that the woman had her baby in Taco Bell because the ambulance didn't get there in time and that she named her daughter Quesedilla. Yikes.

Song of the Week
Considering the name of this post, the fact that I have been listening to Born to Run on repeat, and my upcoming trip to New Jersey, the song below seemed like the most appropriate choice for the week. Just watching the video makes me mad about the whole Live Nation crap again.