Confessions and Updates

I have a confession. I have been cheating on my blog with facebook. I know I know - facebook is the lazy man's blog - a quick one line message - no real thought - but it's just so easy - and I've been so busy... I haven't even had time to read any one else's blog. Ok enough of that - what's the update in my world...
Well I ran pittsburgh back on may 3rd - didn't train very well for it - but going into it decided i just want to have a fun race - i wanted to run a relaxed - evenly paced run - where for once i didn't go out too hard and die. So the morning of pittsburgh - i started off towards the back of the pack and just kept saying to myself "run comfortable" started off around 9 minute miles - got some 8:30s in there - did a good job of running nice and even. I came through the half way mark and the announcer said "these runners are on pace to come in under 4 hrs." Well going into it I thought - i'd just like to beat my pr - it was a 4:25 - I know - not very fast - but hey it was my best! I had a secret hope of getting near 4hrs - but my primary goal was to run a comfortable smart race... so i pushed that out of my head as best as I could... I did well until I hit the mile 22 marker and my legs felt soooo heavy... I tried to keep thinking positive - i had run so well so far - but i have to admit I walked for a bit on this mile - i think the pace was 10:45 or something for that mile. Fortunately when I hit mile marker 23 the course took a sharp down hill - so whether i liked it or not my legs started really moving again and I got back down to a decent pace. From there it was pretty much down hill and then flat to the finish. Around mile 25 someone yelled "come on finish under 4 hours" and I started to panic... I saw some guy laying on the ground with parametics - and I started to panic some more... I stopped worrying about the under 4 hrs - since it wasn't even my goal to start - and just concentrated on running with a nice smooth stride. Final time... 4:01:01. I was so happy - no i didn't break 4 hrs - but it was a 24 minute pr with half assed training preparation - and it wasn't an all out effort. The only down side of the day was that steve ruptured the interface between his achilles tendon and the muscle at mile 5. But the good news is he back up to a walk run - so hopefully we'll get him going again soon.
In a few weeks were heading up to michigan to check state number 5 off my list - there is a small town marathon - I'm thinking i'm just going to walk run it with steve. If im going to complete a marathon in each state I can't race them all. I think it will be a lot of fun - I think we'll start early with the walkers - take our time - take pictures and just have a nice get away... either that or i'll be typical me and actual try and race it... I'll let you know what happens.
Next on the list is marine corp. My original plan was to aim for a 3:50 there and then aim for my bq 3:40 at my next marathon.... we'll see how this summer goes though - solar is aiming for a 3:30 this fall and if I have any desire to continue running any runs with her at all - i'll need to kick it into high gear.... so who knows maybe i'll set my goals a little higher. My training has been sparatic since pittsburgh. I've gained some weight - had some weeks where i have done nothing... and i mean nothing. I'm going to start my 16 week training program for marine corp the week after 4th of july - til then I'm trying to get back in the swing of some decent work outs - and actually running 4-5 days a week. Sad I know - but that's what i've been reduced to. So far this week:

Monday a.m. - yes i said a.m. - i actually got up and ran - it was suppose to be an easy run - pace was about 8:45 - so I was ok with that

Tuesday - took night off to hang dry wall - actually strained my stomach dragging drywall around

Wednesday: 6 mile trail run with fleet feet group and solar - garmin was dead - but we were both breathing pretty hard and not talking nearly as much as normal - so i have to qualify that as a pretty good effort

Thursday: actually did my track workout by myself - go me! 3 x (3x600) with 400 recovery between sets. Well the workout said to do 4:00 between the first 3 600's then 3:30 between the send 3 600's then 3:00 between the last three. Well dummy me ran the first 600 - then waited for 2 minutes... and 3 minutes and I was like this is just way too long of a recovery - what is the point of this? so i started my second 600 - i then realized what a moron i was - that by 4:00 minutes it meant start your 600 ... finish your 600 - keep the watch running and on 4 minutes go again. duh. For me this was about a 1:30 between then a 1:00 min between and finally 30 seconds between. I have to admit that my last 600 was more of a 40 second break - my goal was to keep all of the 600s under a 7:00 minute/mile pace. And i achieved that.

So - so far it's been a decent start at getting back on track this week. however it is 9:30 a.m. and I am eating potato chips as i write this.... oh well baby steps. ( i brought a few chips with me as a treat for lunch... just couldn't wait til then to get into them!) that's all for now!