Pacing Au Naturale

I ran a hilly seven mile route from the school today, enjoying the ongoing winter preview of farm pastures blanketed in snow which contrasted brilliantly with the trees still dotted with their autumn colored foliage. Throw in bright sunshine and cloudless skies and it was quite beautiful.

Run went very well. I decided to run whatever pace felt natural and comfortable without pushing it. I think I only glanced down at the Garmin two or three times total. Ended up with a pretty decent pace that felt easy. Definitely pretty Zen.

Ran 7.1 miles @ 7:41/mile pace.
Paved roads.
Very hilly.
Around 50 degrees, sunny.
Saucony Kinvara, shorts, long sleeved shirt.

Return to Pineland Farms

With hunting season underway, Saturday runs have switched to Pineland Farms, which is a safe haven for trail runners until we reclaim the woods again in December. Bit of a smaller crew this morning, consisting of Ian, Jim D., Zak, Nathan, Al and myself, but a lot of fun as usual.

Map from Accuweather.com

We ran at a pretty good lick for these trails, basically amounting to a solid moderate pace. Leg peppiness continues and nice that the recovery is going well. Afterwards, no takers on coffee at the visitor's center, but in a selfish way that worked out well for me as I spent a few undistracted hours getting a lot of writing done while sipping pumpkin coffee.

Big snowstorm expected tonight, with 6"-12" predicted. Wow, and it's only October? Pretty interesting and exciting. Too bad it isn't happening 24 hours later, we'd be getting a snow day out of it. :-)

Ran 6.7 miles @ 8:21/mile pace.
Trails.
Moderately hilly.
Mid 20s to lower 30s, partly cloudy.
Adidas Adizero XT, long tights, light jacket (shed a few miles in), long sleeved shirt, short sleeved shirt, beanie, gloves.

Shortie and Strides

Another short run on tap today. Great weather and pretty funny that we actually got snow last night. And even funnier is that we're supposed to get several inches tomorrow night and a winter storm watch is in effect. Bring it. 

But today, mid-40s and breezy. Fun little short run and followed it up with 5 X 100M strides. Felt great to give the legs some turnover and I can feel them really coming around now. Lot of pep lately. This is good. Looking forward to getting in a little bit more distance in tomorrow at Pineland. 

Ran 3.8 miles @ 7:37/mile pace (includes 5 X 100M strides). 

Paved roads (strides on grassy field). 

Mostly flat. 

Mid 40s, partly cloudy, breezy. 

Brooks Mach 13, shorts, short sleeved shirt, long sleeved shirt. 

Fall Weather

Loved the weather today. Overcast and cool out, even a bit of light ran as we began the run. It isn't happy weather exactly, but yet there's something oddly appealing about it. Perhaps it's the colorful leaves backdropped against the gray skies? I don't know, but regardless it's peaceful in a way. 

Ran with some of the XC team to a local park, did repeats around a field there and then headed back. Good little run. Tomorrow will be a day off, and if we're lucky we might see our first snowflakes of the season. 

Ran 2.8 miles @ 7:53/mile pace. 

Paved roads, grassy fields.

Mostly flat. 

Upper 40s, overcast, light rain. 

Brooks Mach 13, shorts, short sleeved shirt, long sleeved shirt.

Windy Four

Short and pretty slow on tap again for today. I plan on most runs being no faster for the next few weeks at least, but I may throw in some stride work later in the week just to give the legs some turnover. Really windy out, but quite pleasant out nonetheless.

I'm afraid I'm going to go a bit nuts with my plan to take it really, really easy until December, but I think letting the body heal up completely and giving it a break will pay greater dividends in the long term, so will try to stick to that plan.

Ran 4.3 miles @ 7:49/mile pace.
Paved roads.
Slightly hilly.
Mid 50s, sunny, windy.
Saucony Kinvara, shorts, long sleeved shirt.

Woods Out Back

I had a fun morning, helping out at a 5K race in the town I teach in and then once I got home, I was eager to hit the woods out back for a trail run, so I did just that.

The mantra was slow and easy for today, though the legs feel fine from last weekend's marathon. Ran into a few interesting folks during the run. The first guy was a mushroom hunter. He had a 5-foot spear with him, which I assumed was for gathering mushrooms... but not the case, he was afraid of coyotes. I didn't argue the point much about the statistical data on coyotes and human attacks, but regardless, he was a nice guy and I told him I'd keep an eye out for any chaga for him. 

On the return back on the fire road, ran into another fellow who lost his dog after it chased some birds into the woods. I offered to help him out, but he said he was confident the dog would return at some point. I told him if I came across the dog I would do my best to corral it back to him, and I continued on. 

Good little run and the weather was perfect. Been thinking quite a bit about how I want to go about preparing for Boston. I'll detail that in a post sometime this week. 

Ran 6.6 miles @ 8:58/mile pace. 

Trails, fire roads. 

Very hilly. 

Mid 50s, partly sunny. 

Adidas Adizero XT, shorts, short sleeved shirt, cap. 

First Post-Marathon Run

The original plan was to take a full week off from running after the marathon to ensure proper recovery. Well, that lasted three days, but I feel my reasoning is sound. First off, my legs have never felt better after a marathon and recovery is going much quicker than anticipated. Secondly, I thought it would actually do some good to shake the legs loose a bit. Run went well and I kept the pace very easy. Likely won't run again until Sunday.

So what now? I'm pretty much going to run maintenance miles until December. That'll likely mean just 20-30 easy miles a week and a couple of days off each week. Reason being simply to give the body a break.

Once December rolls around, I plan to start ramping up the mileage and by Christmas time, it'll be 16 weeks out from the Boston Marathon, and I'll begin my training regiment.

Ran 3.1 miles @ 8:52/mile pace.
Paved roads.
Mostly flat.
Mid 60s (yuck), sunny.
Brooks Mach 13, shorts, short sleeved shirt.