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9.5 miles at 5:28/km

7.5 miles at 6:03/km

No run today. Drove back home from vacation. I am looking forward to resuming my regular schedule. 

After one week running in the mountains with snow and sun, in a remote village in central Italy, I am back to the reality of life commuting and working in Rome and back home at night running in a well lit industrial area doing the same loop 10-15 times. At least my running buddy was there to share the misery. 7 miles at 5:53/km.

I did a very good evening workout, 10 miles at HM pace 4:18/km (1:08:48 total time), and then half mile cool down. I feel I earned the right to have dinner tonight :-).

7.2 miles at 5:38/km, recovering run in the evening in the industrial area. Not much else to report.

Evening run 7.5 miles at 4:28/km then 0.5 miles cool down. Another good workout to test/train my perspective/ideal/dream marathon pace.

Slow recovery run 7 miles at 6:15/km. I am recovering from yesterday and "tapering" for tomorrow long run.

Morning long run around Vico lake. 20 miles at 5:34/km.

It wasn't very fast but I really wanted to "rest" a little bit after some fast runs this week and I still wanted to be on my for 3 hours.

Have a good relaxing week end.

I really enjoyed the spring weather (70F at the end inside my car). 9 miles at 5:36/km around Vico lake. Everybody decided to do the same thing walking, running, biking, sunbathing or just enjoying the really good weather; according to the weather forecast there will be snow on the ground in Rome again by the end of this week.

After work I spent one hour at the tire shop and finally got home tired and without any desire to go running. 

After running for two days in the morning, with beautiful views and warm temperatures, going back to my usual route at night in the dark with high humidity and cold wind it was not fun.

In spite of all negative thoughts I managed to do my usual 7 miles at relaxing pace (5:47/km).

Not enough time to run tonight, 4.5 miles at 5:36/km.

Big evening run, 16.2 miles at MP (4:29/km). I have never done so many miles at MP in the past, I am very excited and the marathon is just 2 months away.

As a side effect I have nausea and not feeling hungry at all, right now I don't care I feel very happy.

Slow evening run. The good news after last night run are: I am not very sore, I am feeling good overall  and it is a good excuse to run slowly tonight. Just 7 miles at 5:51/km not much else to report.

Evening run 5 miles at 5:32/km. I enjoyed the cool breeze that brought rain and then at the end snow flurries.

Second run of the season with snow on the ground,  in some areas around the lake was about a foot. Today I could not care less of my pace or miles (no Garmin) I just enjoyed being outside while nobody was around, the view of the lake and the trees around were magnificent, the only negative aspect this snow (compared to Utah snow) has an high content of water so after 300 meters my feet and ankles were wet and for the rest of the run.

I really enjoyed the run. Have a good week end.

Rest day.

Evening run around my neighbourough 7 miles at 5:33/km. 

Another good workout at marathon pace is in the book. 10 miles by myself at 4:22/km.

Now mini taper before sunday race.

When I was on the train on the way home I realized it was the perfect evening for not going to run, all excuses perfectly lined up in front of me: tired from yesterday's run, tired from a full day at work, I have to go grocery shopping,  to iron my shirts, to finish a presentation for tomorrow, my running partner was not going to join me and it was raining.

I got home from the grocery store, I put my running clothes on and I went out and I decided to stay out for one full hour even for just a long walk. I ended up with a perfect 10km at 6:00/km. I am done with ironing and now I have to work on my presentation.

This was a very good mental training.

Nice relaxing run 7.3 miles at 5:55/km. Time for dinner now.

I managed to run 3.5 miles after the department meeting was done and before dinner.

At least I will be rested for the upcoming race.

This race is called Tre Comuni (three towns) race because the race starts in Nepi goes to Civita Castellana and comes back to Nepi through Castel Sant’Elia. It is a 22 km race (not the 22.3 km they advertise, they cut it a couple of years ago but they still advertise the same distance) very popular in the Rome area in spite of its altitude profile and for sure not a race where you can establish your PR (the highest point is 800 feet and the lowest point is 200feet above see level).

Many consider this race the beginning of their running season and just do it as a training run.

My goal was to try to keep 4:10/km until mile 8 at the lowest point and then manage to finish under 1:35.

After the first km rain stopped and the conditions were just perfect, kms were passing fast, these are my splits for the first 13km (8 miles) that in spite of the continuous up and down where pretty consistent and exactly where I wanted them to be:

4:08/km, 4:12, 4:11, 4:09, 4:01, 4:07, 4:06, 4:08, 4:08, 4:11, 3:58, 4:07, 3:57.

Then fun began when we started going up the steep canyon walls and my splits show the different kind of “entertainment”:

5:19/km, 4:56, 4:37, 4:31, 4:31, 4:38, 4:31, 4:22, 4:19.

I really wanted to go back to low 4:2x after the first two steep kms, but it was hard and only during the last two kms with the town of Nepi in sight across another canyon I started pushing again a good pace. The last km was a killer, was uphill and on cobblestone on a narrow street but within a “tunnel” of cheering people (that was the only crowd support throughout the race, except for the farmers along the way angry because the road was close to traffic), that’s why my final split was “good”.

I managed to achieve my goal to stay under 1:35, but considering the last two “decent” final kms, I think I left a few seconds to the course, I mentally gave up a little bit after the first big hill and I could not push any “faster” pace even though my breathing was fine and I did not have any leg problems. I have to keep working on my mental training.

Final statistics: final time 1:34:54 good for 266^th place out of 1978 finishers, 43^rd in my age group, male winner won with 1:08:54, first woman with 1:20:14. My team placed 17^th with 27 finishers.

8.5 slow recovery miles at 6:16/km. Legs and body are still tired from yesterday but no specific pain. In a couple of days I should be able to resume a decent pace during my training runs.