Finally able to hit a mileage target. Three weeks to go and the training is coming along.

That's all I got.

He is mostly my favorite actor for The Hustler and The Color of Money. I know, I know, Tom Cruise was in it, but that was before he became a couch jumping Sci-tolo wack job. Martin Scorsese directed it and it has the sweetest shots of pool with a great soundtrack. Just a great story with a great cast made back when you didn't need huge explosions or trucks turning into robots to make a good movie. TCOM is the most quotable movie ever made and he has two great quotes and my favorite movie quote of all time. "You study the watch . . . while I study you." and "Pool excellence is *not* about excellent pool." are two I love to quote all the time but the one I quote still every time I get some money at a race is ...

"Money won is twice as sweet as money earned."

Damn straight it is. Would you rather earn 1000 bucks grinding out your job for a week or win 1000 bucks in a huge kick with two foreigners hammering out the final 200m of a 10k all out. If you are reading this log I already know what your answer is, but it proves the point. The sense of victory is heightened when money is involved and if you take the largest prize it is all the sweeter.

I also was captivated by Paul Newman because he raced a kick ass corvette GT in SCCA races. Kind of sweet when an actor doesn't just act like a cool race car driver, he actually is a cool race car driver. He would dominate at Road Atlanta and Sebring.

Sweet Corvette No?

He also started a business and gave all the profits and proceeds to charity. 200 million dollars total to charity. That is walking the walk when you say you are going to help out. How many actors do that today? He wouldn't talk about it much though because he knew you gave back like that because it is right thing to do, not to look like philanthropist.

Here's to a super cool guy who will be missed.

That's all I got.

Only one interval was the good news.
The bad news was it happened to be a 10 mile interval with alternating pace efforts at 5:30/5:12 pace.

Mario and I alternated every 800m and tried to focus on keeping the effort smooth and constant. As with every workout of this type, some miles were better than others but the whole workout was one big positive. It just didn't feel as hard as it did the first time I did this workout in 06.

Here is the data from the watch:

1. 5.30
2. 5.14 10.45
3. 5.29 16.14
4. 5.13 21.28
5. 5.26 26.54
6. 5.11 32.06
7. 5.31 37.38
8. 5.14 42.52
9. 5.30 48.22
10. 5.12 53.35

As I am sure Uncle Fire would agree, it was a good time.

That's all I got.

On to running.

Just to let everyone know, New Balance Boston won the reach beach relay!!!
The first mixed team to ever win the race outright. We were in a fun race with Hello Kitty from JP. The crazy thing is we started at 4:00 on Friday and finished at 2:00 pm on saturday and only won by 5 minutes. For 22 hours we traded leads back and forth all through the night. It also helped that our women were a bunch of killers who not only didn't mind racing against guys, they relished it. I thought a few of them wanted a piece of me after it was over. The whole team was strong and we needed every second of every mile. It was great the way NBB stepped up and adjusted to some team misfortune. We had people scheduled to run 20 running 27 an people scheduled to run 20 running 14. The whole thing slid sideways for a little while but that is all part of the fun. Adapt on the fly. The SUV smelled like a giant fart at the end but no one really noticed. To all of you reading this, if anyone still does, put a team together for RTB and run it. It is just too much fun.

We had the bestest most funnest team in the whole race.
Here is the band of happy marauders about 5 minutes after we were done.

It also about 5 minutes before we jumped in the ocean. It was chilly but felt good on the knees.

Next on the agenda is the army ten miler.

That's all I got.

The course last year was a long 5k and this year the course was short 6k without actually changing the course. Weird right? I think the course is certainly closer to 6k than 5k but who gives crap because everyone knows where the start and the finish are and who ever gets there first wins. I like the simplicity of the event. Unfortunately this year would be more complex because the field that signed up was much deeper and more experienced than last year.

Dave Hannon once again ran a great race and the bonus this year was tech tees and a free boston marathon jacket to all finishers. Pretty sweet SWAG. Dave also wins the award for best pre-race speech. It was a week ago so even though I am quoting him I may be screwing up some of the exact wording.

“Thanks to everyone for coming. We have a pretty good day and a pretty course out there. It is marked very well with red flags, ribbons, and chalk. If you don’t see any ribbons you are off the course and you may want to go back. Be careful of the footing because there is some single track. There are no mile markers out there so you are on your own with that, I don’t know what you do with those splits anyways. I am going to say on your mark, go. When I say “Go” you go.”

So he said go or blew a horn or something and I got off to the worst start in my cross country career. It was so bad I even commented to the guy next to me “How did I get here?” Still not sure how I got shuffled so far back but I did and had to work a little harder then I would have liked to get into fourth place before the single track.

Nice start there guy. Not even in the picture.

Ben Strain of CMS was the first guy to the single track while I was in fourth behind Mario F and Mathiew Haringa. It was wild looking back down the switch backs and seeing the line of runners coming up the trail. I was quite comfortable for the first part of the racing and was just waiting for someone to go. That happened as soon as we got out of the single track section and headed into what I have been calling the woods loop. This part of the race is a double wide trail full of twists and turns for about 2k. This is my favorite section where you can carry speed through rollers quite easy if you focus. Right after the single track as you swing down a steep hill Mario let his legs roll heading past Ben and the race was on. Right there I think the lead changed hands about 4 times in 200 m. It was a lot of fun. Mario, then Jim, then me, then Aaron (I think that’s what happened).

Then I passed Aaron, then Aaron passed me, then I passed him, then he passed me, and somewhere in all that passing we got a gap to the other runners. I also decided enough silliness and just sat behind Aaron as we climbed out of the woods loop up the hill and back into the corn fields. I tried to make a move in the first field but Aaron picked it up so I just decided that side by side for a while would be fine. I wanted to be in the lead the last 1000m because the plan was to gradually increase the pace making the kick an 800m drive so there wouldn’t be a big kick-off in the final 100m that I couldn’t win. My legs were severely deadened by weekly increases in mileage and the lengths of my workouts. Strength was all I had that day. It worked very well as I took the lead exiting the first cornfield, took a quick line through the woods, and pushed the pace hard through the 2nd cornfield onto the road.

This is Aaron and I exiting the 2nd cornfield onto the road.

Hearing the click clack of his spikes on the road made me really push the road section heading into the rollers on the third and final corn field. I didn’t want to be in a kick on grass against a guy wearing spikes. It worked pretty well because I had a second on him exiting the road and grabbed another two going through the rolling hills, which were a huge pain, in the 3rd cornfield. Turned for home and kicked it in.

Very satisfying race all around. 20 seconds faster than last year and I felt better doing it. After a five minute break Mario and I did the loop again in 19:33 for 12k (give or take) worth of work.

The results can be reviewed here
That’s all I got.

Last week

Monday 11
Training Run 12:00:00 AM - 6.00 mi @ 42:16 (7:02 pace)
Training Run 12:00:00 AM - 5.00 mi @ 34:55 (6:59 pace)
Tuesday 12
Running Workout 12:00:00 AM - Aerobic Capacity Intervals - - 5.00 mi @ 25:17.00 (5:03 pace)
Wednesday 13
Training Run 8:00:00 AM - 6.90 mi @ 48:00 (6:57 pace)
Training Run 7:00:00 PM - 6.50 mi @ 46:12 (7:06 pace)
Thursday 14
Training Run 5:30:00 AM - 10.00 mi @ 1:10:16 (7:01 pace)
Friday 15
Training Run 8:00:00 AM - 7.00 mi @ 52:00 (7:25 pace)
Training Run 4:15:00 PM - 6.00 mi @ 40:00 (6:40 pace)
Saturday 16
Running Workout 12:00:00 AM - Marathon Pace Run - - 6.25 mi @ 35:25.21 (5:40 pace)
Sunday 17
Running Workout 10:45:00 AM - Long Run - - 15.00 mi @ 1:42:47.00 (6:51 pace)
TOTALS
Running: 85.65 mi

This week

Monday 18
Training Run 11:30:00 AM - 7.20 mi @ 52:00 (7:13 pace)
Training Run 6:00:00 PM - 5.00 mi @ 34:59 (6:59 pace)
Tuesday 19
Training Run 6:00:00 AM - 4.80 mi @ 33:46 (7:02 pace)
Training Run 11:30:00 AM - 7.20 mi @ 51:38 (7:10 pace)
Wednesday 20
Training Run 11:00:00 AM - 5.50 mi @ 38:24 (6:58 pace)
Running Workout 5:10:00 PM - Hill Repeats - - 4.00 mi @ 23:10.00 (5:47 pace)
Thursday 21
Training Run 11:30:00 AM - 8.00 mi @ 55:05 (6:53 pace)
Friday 22
Training Run 12:00:00 AM - 7.00 mi @ 50:07 (7:09 pace)
Training Run 12:00:00 AM - 7.00 mi @ 48:33 (6:56 pace)
Saturday 23
Training Run 6:30:00 AM - 7.50 mi @ 53:08 (7:05 pace)
Sunday 24
Running Competition 9:00:00 AM - Chamberas 6K Cross Country (Cross Country) 6K Cross Country @ 18:02.00 (4:49 pace) Place: 1
TOTALS
Running: 85.43 mi

Monday 4
Training Run 6:05:00 AM - 5.00 mi @ 34:12 (6:50 pace)
Training Run 11:30:00 AM - 7.20 mi @ 51:55 (7:12 pace)
Tuesday 5
Training Run 11:30:00 AM - 7.20 mi @ 50:35 (7:01 pace)
Wednesday 6
Running Workout 6:00:00 PM - Hill Repeats - - 2.00 mi @ 12:00.00 (6:00 pace)
Training Run 12:00:00 PM - 5.00 mi @ 36:00 (7:12 pace)
Thursday 7
Training Run 11:25:00 AM - 5.00 mi @ 34:25 (6:53 pace)
Training Run 6:00:00 PM - 10.00 mi @ 1:01:10 (6:07 pace)
Friday 8
Training Run 11:30:00 AM - 7.20 mi @ 50:00 (6:56 pace)
Saturday 9
Running Workout 9:00:00 AM - Tempo Run - - 4.60 mi @ 24:04.00 (5:13 pace)
Sunday 10
Running Workout 9:00:00 AM - Long Run - - 13.00 mi @ 1:30:47.00 (6:59 pace)
TOTALS
Running: 80.2 mi

And finally, our house is starting to look like a house instead of a tri-colored/scraped under construction disaster zone. We only have about 1/2 days worth of painting on the north side and then some trim work and touch up to finish the major overhaul we started about 18 months ago.

Demolition

Chopping Wood

Roof Joists!!!
Get down from there before you slip and that will be the end of marathon!

Do those two hacks know what they are doing? (my dad and I hanging joists)

A porch roof, some siding, a little paint, new drive, new garage door a basketball hoop and . . .
Voila

Here is what we bought.
FROM:

TO:

The project is almost done except some trim paint and a little touch up.
I will take some photos of the back deck and post them later.

That's all I got.

Just a bunch of base mileage and easy running since then until yesterday, which brings on this post. Actual running deserves an actual post so here it is. The first workout is always a bear, so I decided to do an easy tempo because the women were supposed to do a 20 minute tempo. I figured 5 miles at 5:30 was just about right. Too bad I couldn't run one 5:30 mile.

Lake Boon Tempo. 80 degrees and Humid

1. 5.32
2. 5.37
3. 5.32
4. 5.34
5. 5.36
27.53

Yikes is all I have to say about that. It will comeback, it always does.

Today was a nice easy long run of 13 miles with mario and christy on the trails in the refuge.
It had to be easy after the carrying on for dg at the classiest place in worcester.

That's all I got.

Big congratulations to Rebecca Donaghue of New Balance Boston. She ripped a big PR in the 5k weeks before the trials to get in. She then ran 15:38 in the semi’s of the 5k at the Olympic trials only to come back a few days later and run a 15:35 and finish 8th in the finals. Exciting stuff watching those races on TV.

Last night was the chase corporate challenge in Boston. What a difference a flat 3.07 mile (weird but I will explain) course in Boston is compared to a 7.6 mile run up Mt. Washington. Can anyone see why those would feel different? Me neither, I figured they would be exactly the same when I saw them 5 days apart on my schedule. Thought to myself running 8:45 pace up a 12% grade for 66 minutes will be just like running 5:00 pace for 15:00 in Boston on a summer night. I thought wrong.

I do indeed enjoy the corporate challenge. Don’t know why I like it so much but I do. It is a poorly run, overcrowded, yahoo filled corporate sham put on by a bank that probably owns half of the world’s assets and they charge 37 bucks a head. Raytheon always enters a team and it is a good time at the BHP afterwards so I do it.

It was a solid opening mile as always. I was elbowed out of the way in the first 100m by a guy wearing a pair Avia cross trainers, an ipod, and mesh basketball shorts. I would have been mad if I wasn’t so certain of what was going to happen in the next 100m. You could almost see it come out of him right before the turn onto commonwealth ave. POP! He went from 4:55 pace to about 9:00 pace in about 10 meters. So funny to watch when someone realizes how tired they are ¼ mile into a race and there is still 2.75 miles to go. You can almost see the confidence and bravado fall onto the street. Some poor dude wailed right into the back of him when he slowed so suddenly. Enjoy the rest of the race, hope you have a long playlist qued up.

Back to the race. Due to construction in Kenmore square, the race was changed to 3.07 miles instead of the typical 3.5. I thought at the start this would be a disadvantage to me with my lack of speed work but turns out it didn’t matter a bit. The race would have turned out exactly the same. The long and short of it is Dan Mazzocco, who runs for Reebok Corporation, was dominant. He lead a pack of around 8ish through the mile at 4:53. The odd thing was, I didn’t feel that bad at that pace. I was really fatigued all week from the washington effort but at speed I felt almost good. It was nice to be in a lead pack moving at a pretty good clip again. Then, just after the mile, Mazzacco started looking around taking everyone’s measure to see how we were all doing. Right about there it was over because that was how I used to look when I was in good shape running these things. He pressed the pace down again about 2 seconds per mile and the lead pack shrunk to 4. Then something odd happened, a young guy wearing a yellow earnst and young shirt threw in a hard surge. Only Dan went with it. I fell off the back to fourth while a Gillette guy charged after them in 3rd. We made the turn at 1.5 in that order and then Dan surged on the guy in the yellow t-shirt and he was gone onto a 14:37 to win. The guy in the yellow shirt had about 10 seconds on me at the 2 mile and I had caught up to the Gillette guy. We had a battle the last mile all the way to the charles street turn. In our battle with each other, we closed the gap to 2nd down to about 5 seconds at the turn. I started my kick right there at the corner hoping to get a gap and grab 3rd place when the 2nd place guy started to come back. When I grabbed two seconds in the first 200m of my kick I started to think I could get second if I really drove. At about 30m to go I took over second place and the guy was just a hair slow in realizing it and couldn’t turn on the jets quick enough to get me back, which he certainly could have because he was faster and gained on me the last 10m. The older I get the more I have to rely on the sneak attack kick to gain that extra ½ second.
The results were initially:
1. 14:37
2. 14:57
3. 14:58
4. 14:59

But, it turns out neither the Ernst and Young guy who came in 3rd nor the Gillette guy who was 4th were on their official team roster so they were disqualified. I thought they had numbers on and they looked official but I guess not. All of the digging on the home straight was not necessary.

Back to the present. I took some time off after the chase corporate challenge because I was just tired from training for so long and from the Irish weekend in downeast maine with the Umass crew and other various marauders. I am starting to run pretty regular again and have hopes of running fast this fall. The question of marathon or not is still bouncing around up there and I will have to figure that out sometime. Justin is back at the big R to give me a good reason not to miss any runs. Sometimes you need to stand next to someone who is super fit to let yourself know how unfit you are. I have to start doing the small things (abs, strides, lifting) again so I can race respectable this fall.

No time like the present.

That’s all I got.

Christy Mae was looking for some hard work on the 4th of July and decided to enter the Sudbury Road Race and see how it was. When she got to registration, the women taking the entries asked “You don’t live in Sudbury do you?”
“No, just across the line in Hudson.”
“You know that only Sudbury residents can place and get prizes?”
“What?”

So the Sudbury road race is essentially just that, the Sudbury road race, where anyone from outside of Sudbury doesn’t count and isn’t really welcome, but they take your money and let you run, only with a big X on your bib like some sort of scarlet letter. Why don’t they just post that on their website? Who knows, but the whole thing just rubbed me the wrong way. I have no problems with people putting on a race with just who they like but that should be made clear before you actually get to the race. A big banner across the top of the web page saying “SUDBURY RESIDENTS ONLY” would do nicely.

The next funny thing about Sudbury was an article
Suburban Peace vs. Pedal Power in the Saturday Globe on the cover about the proposed rail trail through an old CSX rail line that runs north to south from Lowell to Framingham. These are the snobbiest, snootiest, most selfish type of people. They have property that abuts the old rail line, and they want it to be their own little conservation area of privacy and solitude and are obviously willing to say and do anything to keep it that way. There is absolutely nothing wrong with bike trails. They encourage exercise, give a way to commute to work without risking life and limb, and get people outdoors to safely recreate. We have one in Hudson and it is great. Families go out on Saturdays and Sundays to ride and cruise around from Hudson to Marlborough.

Here is a quick excerpt for those of you who don’t want to read it:

Looking out at a lushly wooded area beyond a stone wall on her 100-acre estate, Carole Wolfe's face darkened. There, in the distance, she said, nervously pointing a finger, stretches a former rail corridor that, if some have their way, could bring trouble upon this town where her family's roots date to Colonial times.
"Instead of solitude," Wolfe said, "you'd be having people."

Can you believe that! People!!! ON BIKES NO LESS!!! It would be Chaos with a capital C! I have seen these self described "people" in Hudson, Sommerville, and the cape on their fancy paths. These bike riders. They wear helmets, smile and laugh. They move from place to place without a car, enjoying each others company and the summer. Do you know what they do sometimes when they think no one is looking?

Eat ice cream. I have seen it with my own eyes.

Another gem from the article by Marianne Maurer:

Opponents of the "rail trail" say the path would draw hundreds of thousands of bicyclists who would bring with them noise and other disruptions into what is now a pristine landscape. Hordes of bikers, walkers, and rollerbladers would scare away wildlife, they say, and invite crime from trespassing to vandalism and assault.
"We don't have neighbors nearby," said Marianne Maurer, whose family's tree farm is bisected by the proposed bike trail. "If something happened, no one would hear us yelling."

As if no one can get to her home now. There is a road and a driveway right? Can anyone hear you yelling now??? She is just the typical selfish person who wants her own conservation area in her back yard. The only problem is, she doesn’t own it, it isn’t her land. Hordes? Honestly, like the Gallic hordes invading Rome? Yes, people may use the path, but 100,000’s is little bit much. She envisions the let out of the patriots game every weekend and what will happen is every 20 minutes or so a group will ride on by.

This is just comedy of the highest order.

If you really want to know what type of person we are dealing with, I will leave you with this. She is quoted so I have to believe she said it. Based on this one quote, I am convinced Marianne Maurer is one of the dumbest people in the world.

As far as Maurer is concerned, a better solution is for bikers to get their exercise indoors. "My whole theory is: Go to the gym that you got the membership for and that you know you are not using," she said.

To paraphrase: On a beautiful summer day, drive, go inside a large metal box, and pretend to ride a bike while not going anywhere and breathing computer controlled air.

Congratulations Marianne Maurer, you are an imbecile.

That’s all I got.

This race was like nothing I have ever done. It was an absolute grind. There is no relief anywhere on the course. There the first 200m which is flat, one parking lot that is pseudo flat for 30 meters and one section after mile 6 that is not quite as steep as the rest of the mtn for 50 meters, but the rest just pure uphill.You can see the results here. No pictures yet but I am certain they will convey the difficulty of this particular race. I felt like hammered crap at halfway point. When I saw that sign that said halfway, I had serious doubts about being able to complete the climb. I just felt worn out the entire time. One thing that didn't help is I had a an episode on my thursday run involving a low branch and my eyeball which resulted in an abrasion on my cornea and a midnight trip to the ER to have the eyeball fixed up because it was swollen shut from the irritation the abrasion was causing. I looked like a weeping little pansy. The good new from that trip was they took all the stats and my resting heart rate was at 44 which surprised me with the work I have been doing as of late. It was a lot more painful than I thought it would be and it made for a horrible nights sleep and a horribly unproductive day of work the next day. Then the drive to Easton NH where we crashed at Mr Hurst's sweet mountain house. I want to write a whole recap of the race but am getting sleepy and it is time for bed. Tomorrow if I have the time.

Here is the data from the race.

.9 6.30.42
2 8.04.40
3 8.44.88
HW 31.25.08
4 8.56.33
5 9.18.91
6 9.08.19
7 9.27.44
7.6 1.06.01.03

Those last two miles were a real blast let me tell you.the last 50 meters of the race were up a wall. If you reached out your hand you would be touching pavement.

That's all I got.

I was the announcer at the BHP this past weekend. I just read splits over the loud speaker and make the calls for the races. Nothing special. I am not a speaker or a MC or anything even remotely close to that and there are a million people who could do a better job.. Kathy called the day before the race and said she needed someone to announce and do sign in so christy and I said not a problem. I guess I am not a very good announcer because I am getting killed on Letsrun. Hahahaha. Not for my crappy racing as of late or my disaster of a Boston Marathon, but for announcing a little track meet. Too friggin funny. Check it out if you want a chuckle

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=2494989

Speaking of racing, I have done four races in the last four weeks for various reasons but that is coming to an end. Too much driving and mountains are just too damn exhausting to get in deathmatches on with people who live in NH.

http://www.coolrunning.com/results/08/ma/Jun7_LaSpor_set1.shtml
http://www.coolrunning.com/results/08/ri/Jun1_9thAnn_set1.shtml
http://www.coolrunning.com/results/08/ma/Jun7_LaSpor_set1.shtml
http://www.coolrunning.com/results/08/ma/May18_Hollis_set1.shtml

that's all i got.

"I'm trying to go faster but the gearing is all wrong!"

Back on the running horse. I have been thrown off before and always seem to get back on sometime. Nothing like a lung burning 6k to get you back into the racing frame of mind. The good thing about this race is I absolutely accepted at the start that it was going to hurt and not be any fun at all. I was not let down. I have not done any speed since 2 wks before boston and the redline was going to be reached quickly and any prayer of staying somewhere near the front would require staying at redline the entire way. Redline was hit about 200m in and I got back into the green about a mile into the cooldown. I did not wear a watch and am using TPS splits because we were close enough for most of it. You can subtract a second for the first mile and add a few for the others because he beat me by 4 seconds. 4:51 9:49 (4:58) 14:50 (5:01) 18:35
I am taking a small victory from staying below 5 min pace with two rather large hills and a suicidal opening mile. A watch couldn't have helped anyway as this effort was all about staying tough and digging in. The back and upper hamstrings were very tight going down the last hill but I still think it is in the getting better stage. Tomorrow will be a better indicator. This week is my first week of an attempt at real training so we will see how it goes.

Log:

Monday 5 Running Workout 11:00:00 AM - Hill Repeats - - 3.00 mi

Tuesday 6 Training Run 11:00:00 AM - 5.50 mi @ 35:35 (6:28 pace)

Wednesday 7 Training Run 11:00:00 AM - 7.00 mi @ 48:33 (6:56 pace)

Thursday 8 Training Run 11:00:00 AM - 10.00 mi @ 1:07:00 (6:42 pace)

Friday 9 Training Run 6:00:00 AM - 7.00 mi @ 49:25 (7:03 pace)

Saturday 10 Training Run 8:00:00 AM - 5.00 mi @ 35:17 (7:03 pace)
Training Ride 10:00:00 AM - 20.20 mi @ 1:07:00 (3:19 pace)

Sunday 11 Running Competition 9:30:00 AM - Nashua 6k (Cross Country) 6K Cross Country @ 18:35.00 (4:58 pace) Place: 7

TOTALS Running: 54.23 mi
Biking: 20.2 mi

Bad day to have a bad day. Should have been 26.2 but I missed my guess at my current level of fitness, again. At 22 my back and hamstrings just locked up. I have never had that feeling before. Just wish I could get it right one of these times. Next time I marathon it will be easy the first half if I have to chain my legs together.

Data:
5.25
5.24
5.22
5.26
5.35
5.21
10.53
5.27
5.30
5.38
5.23
5.29
5.31
5.37
5.27
5.52
6.05
6.02
6.26
6.47
6.40
2.09.38 stopped

I can't have a good boston for some reason.

Tuesday 22
Off

Wednesday 23
Off

Thursday 24
Off

Friday 25
Training Run 6:00:00 AM - 7.00 mi

Saturday 26
Training Run 8:20:00 AM - 6.00 mi @ 42:00 (7:00 pace)

Sunday 27
Training Run 9:00:00 AM - 10.00 mi @ 1:10:12 (7:01 pace)

TOTALS Running: 46 mi

Looks like the trend will hold for tomorrow and it will be a great day to rip 26/2 miles from Hopkinton to Boston. It is all over except for the racing now. Just finished my last shakeout of 26 minutes with some strides and some stretching. I feel really fit and strong and can't wait for the race. I am very excited to see what kind of time I can wring out of my legs. I have not been sick or injured for the entire build up which has never happened to me. There are no excuses to lean on. Now I am going to proceed to put my feet up and see how much nothing I can do. I bet it is a lot.

For those of you out on the course tomorrow watching the race, I will be wearing bib #35 and wearing blue shorts with a blue/white singlet and black gloves.

It will look exactly like this.

Here is my last week of training for Boston. It is really exciting stuff.

Monday 14
Training Run 12:15:00 PM - 7.20 mi @ 49:47 (6:54 pace)
Tuesday 15
Running Workout 6:30:00 PM - Aerobic Capacity Intervals - - 3.00 mi @ 15:59.00 (5:19 pace)
Wednesday 16
Training Run 11:30:00 AM - 7.20 mi @ 49:40 (6:53 pace)
Thursday 17
Running Workout 5:30:00 PM - Anaerobic Capacity Intervals - - 1.00 mi @ 4:25.80 (4:25 pace)
Friday 18
Training Run 11:30:00 AM - 5.00 mi @ 36:55 (7:23 pace)
Saturday 19
Training Run 10:00:00 AM - 4.80 mi @ 33:26 (6:57 pace)
Sunday 20
Training Run 8:30:00 AM - 3.50 mi @ 26:45 (7:38 pace)
TOTALS
Running: 43.7 mi

Cheer loud tomorrow for those of you on the course.

That's all I got.