Well this is what happened. I quit blogging and running for a while...kind of. I quit for about a month and a half after this last post and then I started running again on and off. Nothing to crazy but I also had gotten into the Boston Marathon about 2 weeks after the last post so I had that going for me in April as well. Here is the extent of what I did over the last 9 months.
December: On and off but mostly off.
January: Was running about 4 to 5 days a week nothing to crazy but it was cold and I did not really care at all. But there was the underlying theme of me trying to get back on the track and run a couple indoor meets. Which I did. I ran a 3k on the 30th that went OK but I could tell I was still not in the greatest of shape as I only ran 9:18 which is what I ran a sophomore and I barely trained for this at all so that was good but none the less it was not fast at all. I knew that I was capable of running faster but I needed to get my head out of my but and get in gear if I was going to.
February: The beginning...Good. The end...not so good. I think the main reason that this segment was a little rough was it was so bloody cold. I ended up running another race on the Feb 6th that went much better. 9:09 which I know that I could not have run faster than at that time. It was only a week after the last one and I ran 9 seconds faster which is almost a second faster per 400m. I was pleased with the results of my brief indoor season as I have not put any speed work in except a couple strides after the runs that I was doing. The next week was good and I got in a really good long run that next weekend on Valentines Day in Minneapolis with a buddy. We ended up going about 16.5 which was a pretty good run for both of us at that time. We were both starting to prepare for Boston. This was 10 weeks out so I was feeling pretty good. Bad part about this is that I did not get another long run in this month. I can not fully remember what the rest of the month looked like but I feel like it was back to the on and off 4-5 days a week plan again.
March: This was not a pretty month at all. I was really thinking that it was going to be a good one but I was really wrong. I ran the first 4 days of the month and then I left for a cruise and did not run a single day. I was in 85+ degree weather for 10 days and did not take a step. ZERO motivation other than the fact that I knew Boston was coming up really soon. So I got back on the 14th and then I started back up again and did the standard 5 days a week running plan. By the end of the month I was back up to 7 days a week and feeling...pretty good.
April: This was a month of getting after it. I think I took about 2 days off before the marathon that was on the 19th. So with the marathon only 3 weeks from the beginning of the month I knew that this was not going to be pretty. Just to remind you I had not done a long run since the one that I told you about in February. And now that I think about it, the end of march really sucked. I was headed out for a long run one day and I was feeling really good. I started out pretty slow and then fell into a pretty comfortable pace at about 6:25ish pace. All of the sudden around 12 miles my hamstring started to lock up. I stopped to stretch and made it another mile and had to walk home. This was on March 21st and this required a couple days off. So, The first weekend of April I was like it is crunch time but I am pretty much screwed for a good race. I had done two 13 miles since Feb. and that was the extent of my long runs. But on the 5th, two weeks out I really through down for one last good long run. And I must say that I was pretty surprised. I ran the first couple pretty easy and then fell into about 6:30 pace for a bit and then ended up having about the last 7 at about 6:04 pace. A couple were under 6:00 and a couple were closer to 6:10 but I remeber feeling pretty dang good at the end of that 20 miler. I averaged 6:18 for the entire run after a pretty slow start. I could not believe that I had just ran that fast for that long off some of the worst training that I have ever put in. So this for sure gave me hope that I would be able to put something fairly well together at Boston in two weeks. The next two weeks were good and I got a 14 miler in on the 12th. I did not really taper at all for the race as my whole training was pretty much a taper or not that intense to where I needed to taper at all. In fact I think it was kind of the exact opposite of a taper. I was running more... PS I signed up for the Fargo Half Marathon back in January that I knew was also looming around the corner in late May. Boston and beyond post to come very soon...
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