Road breakthoughs + the big W

I'm finding more things to talk about as I keep getting stronger and faster. I can sense my body building itself back up after harder workouts, and doing so in a noticeably positive way. It's almost like my body is beginning to understand and react to the pressures I'm applying to it. Run, recovery, run, recovery, run. Patterns. I can feel my mind starting to fall into some familiar patterns as well, where I'll think more intently on my next workout (or race) than usual.

The workout that really made my week last week came on 9/13, exactly 5 months before the trials. Didn't realize that until I wrote it out in that way. Huh. I guess that's pretty cool. Whether it's cool or not, here's what happened: I did an easy 90 minutes at Stratham hill park in the morning, then about 5-6 hours later was heading out for a second run. Usually my second run is an easy recovery sort of thing, or in some cases a chance to work on speed. In those cases I'll do drills, strides, and some hopping around to build some strength and power. Today was different even than those days, with a 10k fartlek planned of 2:00-1:00-1:00-:30-:30-:30 alternating fast and slow running. The workout went great; I started aggressively and held on to those fast paces throughout the run. Here's a breakdown. Blew myself away. This was my first indication that I am getting into very modest race shape.

  
This legitimately doesn't look impressive, but bear in mind this is what I did over 7.6 total miles. So my average pace was drastically pulled down due to a very slow warm up and cool down, which made up about 1.5 miles of it. My "fast" two minute splits were 5:20, 5:30, 5:05, 5:08, 5:03, 5:03, and 5:07. Enough to boost my confidence considerably.

Jumping ahead a couple days, my run in the mountains on 9/15 was shorter than last week's jaunt, but also significantly more elevation gain involving a cruise up to Mt. Washington's summit. I was far more confident compared to last week, so much so that I deliberately reminded myself that I still am a total noob on the mountain running scene and shouldn't get too confident any time soon. My body, too, is getting noticeably stronger out on the roads and on the trails. I went up Tuckerman's trail and back Lion's head trail, which included a little flat running to and from Wildcat parking lot, where I left my car.

                                                       Always nice to have clear signage

                                                           From the base of the ravine

                                 Near the top of the ravine, before heading towards Washington

Amazing views and lots of climbing. It was very windy the whole time, even at the base. Once I got to the peak of Washington, the winds were a sustained 63mph (according to the guys working up there at the time). It was a little creepy as I was the only non-worker up there at the time. I didn't spend much time and continued on my way back down Lion's Head, where I saw a few people and felt like a little less of a weirdo.

                                                                    Wow! Video!

I'm getting bored of this post as it happened days ago and my mind is now on to a four mile race I'm doing tomorrow in Kittery called the Seaside Four Miler. I did it a couple years ago and really enjoyed it. Nice course and I always like an unfamiliar distance. My first race since my marathon last June. Can't wait.

AH