Hello all, been a while since an update. It was a great winter, I backed way off with the mileage after NYC marathon in November and kept it that way for a good two to three months. I needed to recharge and focus on other priorities. January and February were also very challenging months work wise, with a couple weeks stretch with some serious overtime. That blew the running routine up quite a bit, but I was fine with that. I was still savoring the NYC effort, and I was finding time to get in some runs here and there, trying to stay healthy and eating (relatively) well. Overall it was a pretty easy winter to train through without too much snow/ice threats. We had one really cold two week stretch near the end of December and a couple smallish snow events but other than that it wasn't a particularly terrible winter weather wise.
Amazingly I still haven't raced since the NYC marathon in November. Last year I ran four early season races but not this year, this has been my biggest hiatus from racing in the past five years. A big reason why I didn't run my "usual" schedule this winter/spring was because I went to Europe in mid-March for a couple weeks. I didn't want to worry about having anything to train for around the trip, so I kept the schedule completely clear in terms of running events. I had run the Cherry Blossom 10 miler the past three years and could have run it this year, but it was only a week and a half after my vacation so I knew I wouldn't have time to properly train for it so I opted instead to volunteer so I'd have guaranteed entry for 2019.
I've spent the past month or so building back up the mileage into the mid 30mpw range which is a reasonable maintenance range for me. The running over the past month has gone VERY well I have been feeling great and running some solid times compared to what I was running last year. I'm still not signed up for any fall marathons, I'm considering focusing instead on shorter distances. I have a half marathon coming up next weekend and two 5k's (PR birthday bash 5k in late July, and Dulles Airport runway 5k in September) but nothing else at the moment, usually by this time I'm already signed up for a marathon. If I run a marathon this year it's going to be a late sign up and probably a local one (Richmond?) depending on how training is going/looking. I would like to run a fall marathon, but I'm also itching to focus on some shorter distances since I haven't really had time to focus on them in the past years of dedicated marathon training. Sort of playing it by ear as I just build back up the mileage right now.
Excited for next weekends half though! Park to Park half marathon, it's a point to point race from Stuarts Draft to Waynesboro VA. My Aunt is running it, her first ever half marathon! She said I was a big part of her inspiration to start running which I thought was really cool, so I'm excited to be able to participate in the event as well. She started running the day after the NYC marathon in November and is now ready to go for a half marathon! So inspirational and exciting to see new people go for their goals and train to accomplish something big. Technically it will be my first half marathon since August 2015 in Annapolis Maryland, but I've run 3 full marathons since then.
My half marathon personal record time is very soft compared to my other distances as a result of not focusing on this distance in years. According to Strava my best estimated effort for a half is 1:50:17 as part of the 2014 Marine Corps marathon. My last half marathon race in 2015 was a 1:55:48. I've had some killer ten mile runs in the past couple years, last year Cherry Blossom for example was my ten mile PR- 1:13:56, would have run a 1:36ish half at that pace. Ten miles seems to be a sweet spot for me from a physiological standpoint, my ten mile times are MUCH better compared to my marathon times. Not sure if it's just a result of training or if I'm just naturally better at that distance but either way I'm hoping my half time should be relatively easy to beat. The course on Saturday doesn't seem too ridiculous, some rolling hills, but overall not too bad. Hoping to PR, but also keeping expectations in check because I haven't had a huge build up for this race. Instead I will primarily be using the race on Saturday as a fitness baseline, and then probably target a fall half to train a full cycle for (3+ months) to really go for a strong PR.
Anyway, that's about it for now, I'll write up a race report after my race on Saturday with hopefully a new personal record to report!!!
It's nice to see you back on the blog. Good luck this weekend!
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