our choices show what we truly are

Labor day, I ended up doing a double and lots of things at home, tomorrow at work I will rest.

AM: 6.2 miles at 5:15/km, it was a nice progression run it was sunny and hot.

PM: after a couple of thunderstorms, much cooler temperatures, cloudy sky and another progression run. Weird enough I finished 7 miles at 5:15/km again.

I really enjoyed the whole day.

Progression run from 6 to 4:10/km. 9 miles in 1:13:32 (5:05/km AP).

Not enough time to run but I still wanted a speed workout, 1 slow km as a warm up and then I started my series of 12X400m w/ 200m recovery jog. Target pace was 90 seconds.

I was not properly warmed up at the beginning but then I went into the zone and in spite of the negative feelings at the beginning I finished all the repeats. No time at the end for the cooldown. These were my splits: 92, 90, 93, 91, 88, 89, 88, 88, 88, 90, 88, 89 AP 89,5.

Slow recovery jog, 8.1 miles in 1:15:34. It was really nice but really slow.

This morning I didn't feel like running, I was tired and sleepy. I decided to go anyway and see what happened. After 3 miles I realized there was no way I could have done 10-13 miles i turned around and finished with 6.2 miles in 1 hour. At least I put some miles on my legs and once I was at home I felt much better than when I left.

I decided to do this race at 7:30 am when I saw dark clouds and 100% rain probability in the forecast, I knew this would be my only chance to go for a run today.

This race is just 10 minutes drive from my house in the town of Vetralla. I got there at 8:30, registration done in 2 minutes, and I started warming up with the rest of my team. There were lots of discussions about the mileage and the number of laps, the final consensus based on I don't know what kind of source, was a 2X5.5km laps. This was the first year for this race after a 5 year black out. Same organization and people presumed same course and distance. WRONG.

When we were ready to start the RD announced that we were going to do a loop of 2km for 4 times and at that point everybody started laughing, because nobody knew where we were going.

I wanted to do a good HM effort considering the hills and downhills and trying to stay around 4:10-4:20/km. We started on time at 9:30 and soon we discovered that the whole loop was about 2.1-2.2k long with 1.4k uphill, 0.2k flat and then the rest was downhill (at least was well marked).

I was going up at 4:30/km on the uphill km (almost all out) and going down on the downhill part at 4:14. I managed to keep this pace throughout all four laps and at the end I was happy about the overall result (4:25/km AP). I also avoided to be lapped (during my 3rd lap) by the winner by 300m.

After the finish everybody was protesting with the RD because the course was longer than the announced 8km (Garmin said 8.7) and a local mountbiker did the loop for us with his bike and confirmed that the course was slightly over 8.53k . I will go with this measure.

Overall it was a good run, I wanted to run a little bit  faster and do a longer cool down but started pouring an heavy downpour, I retreated in my car and drove home.

Unintentional progression run, started really slow and I went each km faster. Finished with a series of 4 k at marathon pace. Final time 1:09:06.

Speed workout. My goal was a 6X1000 with 3 minutes recovery jog. Each repeat at 4:00/km, that would be right now in between a 5k and a 10k effort.

Unlike last week a did a 2k warmup and then I started, with the series:
4:58, 4:54, 4:54, 4:56, 4:55, 4:54/km. During the recovery jog I covered on average more than 0.5k.

To finish I did a slow long 6k cool down to get also some mileage.

Overall I felt in control throughout the whole work out, for sure the 3 min recovery helped a lot.

I just to be consistent with this kind of runs for the rest of the season

Back to normal, regular run at slow pace to recover from yesterday. I wasn't feeling that bad especially at the end, I hope to carry over the good feelings for tomorrow night run. 6.2 miles in 55:08.

I started really slow at 7:00/km uphill without any energy in my legs, after 4k I was almost back to normal and I started pushing the pace going progressively faster. The last 4k were done at HMP (around 4:10-4:20). I finished 10.5 in 1:23:51. Bugs were everywhere, they don't bite, but I swallowed many of them.

8.3 miles in 1:16, just miles in. First day of allergy, 2 weeks of misery left.

Another slow 8 miler in 1:15, I really wanted to run relaxed and trying to recover. Tomorrow I will do another training race and I would reallyl like to finish strong.

Another training race, I didn't taper during the last two days, I just reduced my mileage to see what kind of speed I could keep today.

This race is brutal because there two 3.5 miles loops with three hills (and three downhills) to be repeated twice. Also the race as usual around here starts around 10am when the sun is high in the sky and if you have summer like conditions like today you are going to suffer. Main goal was just to improve my average pace compared to last week and finishing at 4:10-4:20/km AP. I was a little cautious during the first loop, at the beginning of the second one I noticed that my legs were just fine and I started pushing on the three hills and catching up several people. The only disappointment I was passed during the last 200 m by three guys.

After the  race I did a couple of km as a cooldown and I felt immediately recovered.

I am very happy with the overall results and I had much better feelings than last sunday. I hope to keep improving in terms of weekly mileage and weekend speed. Next sunday another 10k on a pancake flat terrain.

Weather is cool (almost cold) again, last saturday we were around 30 degrees Celsius tonight when I left my car at 7pm it was below 10. It was  nice. I started at a good clip and I kept accelerating each passing k, I finished 10.2 miles in 1:24:07 for a 5:09/km. Right now 5:10/km is my cruising speed I feel I can keep this pace forever, most of my 10-13 milers in the last month were done at this speed.

During this run I saw in two different places the first fox of the season and the first snake, they were just casually crossing the road.

Speedy tuesday, 10X800m at whatever pace felt sustainable for 10 repeats with 2:00 recovery jog. I started with a mile warmup and then I went for the first one trying to keep 3:05 and see what it was like. The rest of the repeats were really consistent around the same speed. Repeat 6 to 8 were a struggle but I maintained the speed, #9 I lost it a little bit toward the end but I promptly recovered during the last one. These were my splits :

3:04, 3:05, 3:06, 3:05, 3:04, 3:03, 3:05, 3:05, 3:07, 3:02 AP 3:04 

Not enough time to run, it will be a common theme in the next three days, 5 miles in 41:31, not too bad considering yesterday speed workout.

6.2 miles in 57 minutes, not much else.

No run tonight, last night I had a social evening with the lab and today I had to attend a meeting. I am really tired right now I just want to go to bed. Tomorrow the same thing.

I really wanted to do this race in Pescara for several reasons: it is accurately measured (9.6km), it is flat at sea level and most importantly I really wanted to test my speed on a decent course.

I was in Pescara for the weekend, it is just a two hour drive from my house, and this race was just perfect. There was also an HM but I wasn't ready for that.

I got to the starting area one hour before the start, temperatures were perfect for this time of the year, just a light breeze to make everything perfect. The course description is simple 4.8km straight south, a 180 degrees turn and then 4.8km back north to the finish line, while the HMers would continue south until they hit their turnaround point. I really wanted to see if I could hold 4:00/km. I started with 3:54 and from there I went progressively slower to 3:57, 4:00, 4:04, 4:11, 4:08, 4:16, 4:17, 4:10 and 4:04 for the last 600m,  39:26 4:06/km AP.

I could have done a few seconds faster if I didn't start so fast, but I have no regrets I know for sure that I don't have the 4:00/km speed back in my legs yet. All conditions were favorable, I also had a guy on my left shoulder since the start to push me to my absolute limit, at the turnaround I was in 10th position and I didn't want to loose it, and managed to maintain it until the end. I ran scared and chased the whole race and managed to keep him behind, so this is really my best effort and where I am right now.

I felt possible at the start to finish between 38:30 and 38:50,  I need to run more.

PS. I was in 10th position overall at the end and 3rd in my age group because all the fast people did the HM.

My total body was trashed from yesterday race, the heavy rain outside at 7pm helped me to convince me to stay inside.

I went out for a slow jog, my legs are still heavy like lead, four slow miles finishing before a big thunderstorm flooded the whole area.

Another slow recovery run, tonight after a couple of miles my legs came back to life and managed to finish at a decent speed. 6.2  miles in 52:45. No speed work this week just miles and recovery.

I thought it would be another boring run at slow pace, then when I was 2 miles from the car I had a close encounter with a wild boar trying to dig his way out of a metal fence next to the road where I was running. We both got scared by each other and we had a rush of adrenaline to run in the opposite direction, after a 100m dash I stopped I turned around and I saw it charging the metal fence again, passing underneath, crossing the road and disappearing in the trees on the other side of the road. It was big, black, wet and muddy (he was coming back from the lake and headed for the hill) and really smelly, the smell was the first thing that informed me about his presence. I was still amazed by this, when after another 300m I saw a fox quietly looking at me across the same metal fence (it was the same property of the wild boar), he/she was not scared at all by my presence, I stopped, I got closer to the fence, after staring at each other for 30 seconds I kept going and I saw that she went away too. For the records I  finish my wildlife run in 51:46.

Good run I started at 6:00/k and then I progressively accelerated in the MP territory. I finished 13.1 miles in 1:49:52 5:12/k AP.

I was happy because I started at 10 am when it was already hot and I kept going faster in spite of the heat.

I wanted to do a tempo run at MP or whatever I was able to maintain for the 16.1k distance. I decided to do an out and back on a roller course under the sun at 11am to see what kind of mental resilience I still have under tough conditions. I went out at a controlled pace (4:40-4:50/km) that felt hard with many doubts whether I could keep it for the whole distance. On the way back the head wind was pleasant for the cooling effect it had, but it was harder to push the pace. I think because I started fighting the wind that my pace went below 4:30/km and in this way I kept 4:22/km for the last 8.05km. Overall it was a solid effort and I finished at 4:30/km AP (1:11:52 total time). I walked for another mile after finishing, to cool down and let my legs recover a little bit.

7 miles in 1:04:11, just recovering from the hard week end runs.

After 4 miles a huge thunderstorm rolled in, I managed to get back to the car before heavy rain and lighting started. Overall 5 easy miles without much glory.

7 miles in 1 hour around the lake.