The Wasteland of Novempril

I need to get out of the wasteland of Novempril (November to April) where no races happen, the weather turns uglier and uglier, and training miles seem to have no point. Even finding a reason to blog is difficult. Its been a week since I last wrote, and I'll warn you now that I don't have much to say in this one, so I'll probably babble on about something trivial and uninteresting. In case I do, I have included possibly the cutest 'kitten playing' type video on the web ever, which you should feel free to view rather than actually reading my blog.

Are you back with me yet? (That kitten is so cute.) Here's what I 've run in the week since I last posted. We did a slightly mucky group run from Lock 29 on Saturday, 12 miles through the woods. It was a fun morning. The next day, I did what I thought was 12 miles in Solon with the SERC group, but it turned out to be only 11.5. Slacker. I'll make up for it thie weekend. Monday was my recovery run, althought I don't feel like I did enough over the weekend to actually need a recovery. Tuesday at the track was very bleak. It is now dark when I arrive. There was only one other runner there, Tim C., and although he had been there for a while, he stayed and ran 3.5 warm-up miles with me before departing. So there I was, all alone on a cold, dark track, wondering why I was about to put myself through another interval session. I could have blown it off, this being Novpril, and no one would know or care. Then I remembered some advice I had given to someone, years ago. Work hard when no one is watching. It was just enough motivation to get my head back into the speed work. I did 6 x 100 stride outs, followed by 6 x 800 intervals. In rereading Pfitzinger, I noticed that I had been running my intervals faster than he recommended. Based on my target marathon, I should probably be running at about a 6:05 to 6:10 minute mile pace, but I have been in the 5:50's, even 5:40's. So, I tried to rein it in just a little on these 800. My times were as follow: 2:55, 2:55, 2.59, 2:53, 3:03, 2:54. I did not back off as much as I should have, but I will keep at it. (If you have not dozed off yet, this might be a good time to replay the kitten video.)
On Wednesday at lunch I ran a familiar loop, going east down into the valley, then north on the towpath, then west on Hillside up out of the valley, then south on Brecksville Road, and east on Pleasant Valley. On Thursday, I started out the same way, but instead of turning at Hillside, I continued on the towpath to Rockside, then out of the valley and back, making for another 2.25 miles. It's a good run, one that I might be doing more often in the coming months.

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Good luck to the SERC's running the Richmond Marathon on Saturday: e-speed, Eileen M., Paul R., and Barb B.