Chasing Sub 20

Training for sub 20 started in earnest this week.  I've got about 7 or 8 weeks to follow Pfitzinger's moderately aggressive 5K plan to get me to sub 20.  First week was post marathon so less aggressive than the plan but still pretty good.  Tempo run on Tuesday followed by several 9 mile GA runs, which by the end of the week were pretty snappy and fluid.  Going to work on getting better and more sleep, which has been a challenge in training cycles past.  Also signed up for three 5k's, my goal race, a Halloween 5k in Wayzata and another Turkey Trot in Chaska in early November.  The hope is to run 22, 21 and finally 19:59.  Getting kind of excited.

Taper Tedium

First week of the taper for next week's Ely Marathon.  Good timing because it was an unusually hot week end with temps in the mid 90's!.  Not to worry though as the extended forecast in Ely looks like a low of 40 and highs around 60.  Again, just hoping to get somewhere under 4 hours and basically survive.

I mentioned last week how little racing I have done over the last couple of years, so we are going to put an end to that.  Signed up for 3 5k's between now and Thanksgiving.  Also planned out a rough racing schedule for the next 5 months or so.  Pretty darn exciting.  Bring it on!

Rick

Broken Record

Almost a year since my last post and not much has changed.  I did just finish my "training cycle" for the Ely Marathon, but am not overly confident in what the result will be.  Anything under 4 hours would be a relief at this point.  Probably averaged about 50 miles per week for about 18 weeks, so not terrible, just not much quality and virtually no racing.  I did complete 4 20-milers, but they were slow and only one finished strong.  Oh well, the taper and cooler weather can often provide miraculous results.

I think I put my finger on the problem and that is I pretty much quit racing altogether.  Why?  Because I didn't see the point in racing if I wasn't going to post "respectable" times and how stupid is that?  First off, no one cares, second there is no replacement training-wise for race effort and third, I like racing!  So all that being said, I already have 3 races planned after Ely.  All of them are 5k and all with the goal of getting back into sub 20 shape.  I have about 8 weeks of training laid out with the Tonka Turkey Trot being my goal race.

Long term goal right now is Twin Cities Marathon in 2020.  Keep it modest and shoot for 3:15.  Based on how my speed has all but vanished over the past two years, that might even be aggressive, but you gotta have goals, right?  Plus, the return to racing will certainly help.

Bottom line is that I want the joy to return to running and that joy came when I was training smart and racing a lot, mixing it up with all the other old guys!

I am in my taper right now and am encouraged that with the low temps and sinking dew point, my heart rate stays low even at brisk pace.

So, for now this blog should be called Chasing 20 Minutes.  Hey, I'm kinda excited!