our choices show what we truly are

First run of the new year under an heavy downpour. I got back home after a vacation in the mountains in central Italy. The weather was great, clear skies and freezing temperatures, the snow was good too and snowboarding was just fun, I did a few miles runningwise and rested a lot during the remaining time. Tonight I was really craving for a good ole run and in spite of the rain I went out and just did my ten loops in the industrial area. Looking back at my 2011 running year I missed my goal of running 2400 miles, this year I wanted to do less miles then in 2010 when I did 2700 miles, but more fast runs. I succeded in doing more big workouts, but coldn't keep my mileage high enough. During the last three months was hard to keep 200 miles per month for this reason I feel I should have run more miles  during spring when the weather was great. This year I improved my halfmarathon and marathon times, especially the marathon PR was a great gift after more than five years since my last one.

Goals for 2012 are more or less the same of last year: run 2400 miles and improve my race times (for a 5K and 10K it should be easy, I have just to pick up a couple of flatish or not too hilly races) big goal again will be improving my marathon PR.

7 miles in 60 minutes and a few seconds, almost perfect.

Tonight I did the first mini tempo run (10k) of the new year, 2 weeks after my last one. I wanted to beat my marathon pace (45:00) and I managed to finish  just ahead in 44:10. I was happy for sure at the end but it wasn't easy as it was used to be a few months ago. For sure I lost some fitness in the last month, but it feels good to go fast again.

This morning before going to work I did 30 minutes on my bike trainer.

30 minutes on the bike trainer early in the morning.

5 miles at night, the pace was slow and relaxed.

I took advantage of the vacation day and I slept until 9:30am. Outside was windy and cold, an dthe sky was blue without a single cloud for miles, it doesn't happen very often here. I could even see the Appennini mountains covered with snow.

I waited until the afternoon to go out and run. At 2 pm the weather was much warmer and I really wanted to go a little bit faster and longer than usual, but I had doubts. I drove to the lake and I decided to finish 10 miles in 1:12, or any pace I could sustain for that distance.

It was harder than expected to maintain an even pace because the headwind, crosswind and tailwind were messing up my efforts, after 8 miles I turned around and this time the wind was no longer a problem even if it was still there constantly changing directions, I was much more focused and determined to maintain an even pace. On the way back I was making up some of the time I lost on the way out and I managed to finish in 1:12:10, just 10 seconds off of my goal. I did 1 mile cooldown to enjoy the last 10 minutes of sun. Considering the weather and my initial feelings I was happy with this run. At home I finished with 20 minutes on the bike trainer.

AM - 5 easy recovery miles then trip to Rome.

PM - 35 minutes on the bike trainer.

This morning I took advantage of a fun run organized by the local trail marathon organization, it was just a 10k, but with 600m uphill and 600m downhill it was not going to be an easy stroll in the park. We were about 30 runners and 30 walkers, it was more a training run than a real race, I was in the leading group of 5-6 people and we waited at the main intersections for the immediate followers in order to make sure nobody got lost. At mile 5 we were at the highest point of the race and we had just a technical downhill before cruising in at the starting/finishing point, but three guys went down fast and we soon lost sight of them and four of us got lost too, we ended up bushwacking for 300 meters until we ended up on someone's farm, we knew we were out of the trail and to rejoin it we went all the way down, run on the asphalt road for half kilometer, turned right on a unpaved road and after another uphill km we rejoined the original trail. We finished our loop with 7.1 miles in 1:34 minutes, overall it was lots of fun running with other people and our detour loop offered us a beautiful view of the lake and of the surrounding hills.

After drinking some water, I went for another 10 k "cooldown", much easier than the race, it was on the asphalt road, almost completely flat. 3.1 miles out I turned around and I realized I was already on my legs for longer than two hours and I was really thirsty and hungry. I finished the last 3.1 miles dreaming water and food. Total running time for 13.3 was 2:31, overall time since the start of the race was almost 3 hours. I was definitively feeling it, but it was the perfect way to spend a gorgeous sunny day outside.

After three very good running days (it helped that were vacation days), with a beautiful blue sunny sky and warmer temperatures, going back to running at night with near freezing temperatures, high humidity and cold wind, it was miserable.

I managed to put together 5 miles and I felt it was a major accomplishment all things considered. I hope tomorrow it will be better. No indoor biking tonight.

7 miles in 1:03:57, nothing fast just some miles in the cold dark night.

AM 30 minutes on the bike trainer, this is what I usually do, warm up for 5-10 minutes, increasing cadence until I start sweating for 5 minutes and then make sure I keep sweating for the last 15 minutes; it sounds gross and I am really a mess at the end, but it is a good measure of the effort.

PM Tonight I didn't have enough time, I went for a MP run that lasted only 5 miles. My goal pace was 4:30/km, at the end I finished 5 miles in 36:24 (4:33/km). I started really slow and progressively I went faster each km. I should be happy about this run but the constant theme of this training season is lack of good feelings, in september I was doing more speedwork and more mileage and every was easy. Right now I am fighting just to keep a minimum mileage and minimum speed. In the end it is probably better doing what I can rather than giving up completely (that is the real danger).

AM - 20 minutes on the bike trainer

PM - 7 slow miles, it was one of those nights were just going out and doing a single mile was already a victory, I did 7 of them, I won't be any faster or stronger after tonight's run, but for sure more stubborn.

Another 5 slow miler,  cold and dark night.

I wanted to do 26k close to marathon pace using a 5k interval scheme, but I had doubts, because I haven't done anything close to that for months and I feel that my fitness level is no longer where it was in september/october. I decided to attempt it anyway in a do or die way. Target pace was 4:30/k (7:14ish/mile).

These were my splits.

1k 5:27/km

5k 4:34/km average pace

1k 5:04/km

5k 4:31/km average pace + 2"

1km 5:20/km

5k 4:32/km average pace + 4"

1km 5:39/km

5k 4:32/km average pace

Total time for 24k 1:52:22 average pace 4:41/km

2k cool down in 11:31

Total time 2:03:53 average pace 4:46/km (7:40/mile).

I am happy because somehow I did it, but it wasn't easy, weather conditions were great cold and sunny with a light breeze on a roller course. I underestimated the sun and the breeze and I didn't bring any water, at the end I was really dehydrated. At home I checked my weight and I lost almost 3 kilos, something that is "normal" for me during the spring/summer long runs but not during the winter. It was probably because it was a really harder effort than anticipated. It is the first week above 50 miles in a while, that's a good news, but I have probably to reconsider my goal time for the upcoming marathons, for sure I am not where I used to be in october. Time to take a good recovery nap.

10.1 miles in 1:30 enjoying the sun and the cold air.

No run today, 30 minutes on the bike trainer, I needed some rest today.

Another boring 5 miler with -5°C and a cold wind from the north. I really need some light and warmer temperatures.

After an unplanned rest day tonight I went for my MP run of the week. Goal pace was 4:30/km. I managed to finish a 10k  in 45:15 (4:32/km), it felt much better than the 8k of last weeek, but I am not even close to where I was last october.  I will use the upcoming months to rebuild mileage and speed without having the pressure of PRing in the upcoming races.

Nothing special tonight just the usual plan "something is better than nothing", 5 miles in 45 minutes.

Half marathon with 3X5000m + 1X2000m at MP with 1k recovery. My goal pace for the repeats was 4:30/km, but during the first set that pace was clearly unsustainable, the rest of the run was ok. I have mixed feelings about this run I was much more in control than last week end and I could have kept 4:30/km for another 5000m at the end, but deep down I know that this pace is too aggressive and 4:35-4:45 is probably a more realistic goal pace for the upcoming marathons. I will keep trying to maintain this pace for medium/long runs in the next few weeks and see what happens by mid-march. These are  my splits:

1k 5:19/km

5k 4:42/km + 1"

1k 5:06/km

5k 4:32/km + 2"

1k 5:24/km

5k 4:28/km

1k 5:08/km

2k 4:26/km

0.1km 4:10/km

Total time for 13.1 was 1:38:48, average pace for the whole run was 4:41/km.

After a lazy week with lots of unplanned rest days, tonight I had a very good relaxing run and 7 miles in 1 hour were really easy. Another run is done.

Because I am not sure about my tomorrow night running schedule, I anticipated tonight my MP run. Goal pace was 4:30/km, the first 2 k were hard (4:36, 4:27) because it was cold and my legs were not warm enough, then once I was warm enough I started going a couple of seconds faster each k finishing the last 3k with 4:18, 4:15, 4:09. Final time for 10k was 43:43 AP 4:22/k.

After struggling for a few weeks I finally managed to bring my 10k tempo run under 45 minutes.

45 minutes on the bike trainer, lots of sweat.

6.4 miles at slow pace. Temperatures were around freezing and the wind from the north made this run miserable.

Railways workers strike, my commute  time went up from three to six hours. While I was waiting at the train station I went up and down the train platform (about 200m) for 1 hours covering about 5-6k. It was "fun" watching people staring at me in disbelief, I was probably the only entertainment there. No desire to go running once I got home.

The plan was to finish an half marathon in 1:40 without killing myself. On the way back the cold wind was killing my will power and I slowed down finishing in 1:43:18. I am happy and not too tired. Tomorrow there will be a race slightly longer  than a half, on a much more difficult course where I will try to replicate this time.

If you want to see the altitude profile of this race you can find it in my race report of last here, it is basically a 15k downhill race followed by a 8k uphill death march. This year the start was in the second town ("Tre comuni" means three towns because the course goes through 3 towns and each year start and finish line are in a different town) but it was a logistic nightmare because this town is so small that 2400 runners (and their cars) were 3 times the number of the people living there. To get to the start we were forced to leave the car 2k away and there was no place where to leave our bags near the finish line so we had to run to the start get the bib number, running back to the car drop our stuff and run back, when I got to the start I had all 2400 people in front of me and no way to go around. My goal was just to finish in 1:50 so when we started I tried to relax and for 1k I was in a solid wall of human beings without any possibility to go faster than 6:00/k. My legs were a little bit to  more sore than anticipated and it was difficult to find a good rhythm, I had doubts I could finish it in one piece considering the big hills at the end. After passing a few hundreds of people I managed to maintain 5:00/k for the first 10k then on the big downhill I gained a few more seconds and then I was ready to assault the big hill. I actually sped up even more on the uphill part, passing lots of people and I finished the last 7k at 4:30/km that would be my goal MP. In two days I did a little bit over a marathon, this race was just a good excuse to go out on a cold morning winter and doing some good miles finishing  them at MP. If it wasn't for this race I would have stayed warm at home, after all it was fun, very cold, but very fun.

7 miles alone with just the wind an the approaching storm, at the end of the run I was almost feeling warmish. I hope it is not going to snow, it would be a major mess, and I have to go to work tomorrow and the rest of the week.

At least I reached 200 miles for this month, other than that it was a slow run. It was cold and the rain/snow mix completed the picture. At the end I was colder than when I started.

First snow of the season this morning. The commute to Rome in spite of the snow was almost normal and so the commute back home. Tonight the temperatures were just below freezing but it was the cold wind that made the run really miserable. Not much sweat tonight.

35 minutes on the bike trainer. Tomorrow lab retreat south of Rome it will be a long day.

There was some snow on the ground this morning, but I decided to drive to the retreat venue anyway because where I was headed (100km south) weather forecast had just rain. The retreat went well but during our lunch break we discovered that a huge snow storm was hitting Rome. People left work and were already stuck in traffic, my sister called me to inform me that the road from Rome to my house was shut down. We decided to finish our program hoping that the situation would be better in the next few hours. We left the venue at 5:15 I got to halfway from my house in just 45 minutes with almost no traffic and then the nightmare began, I was on the belt route around Rome headed north and to cover 14 km it took almost 5 hours, there was snow coming down hard and freezing immediately. Many people left their car on the shoulder of the freeway and started walking home.

When I eventually left the belt route at 10pm on the highway there was no traffic and I thought that in 45 minutes I would be home and with so much snow a nice run before going to bed would be awesome. I was wrong, I got stuck for another 2 hours with lots of other cars because several truck were blocking the road and only cars with snowtires or chains could still pass on a steep ramp. After passing this obstacle it was already 12:30 am and It was hard to maintain my concetration driving alone during an incredible snow storm with wind blowing hard and almost no visibility. I have never seen anything like that during my seven years in Utah. With 5 km to go two cars were still in the middle of the road I stopped and they told me that the road was "impassable" because there were  snowdriftts 5 feet tall in the middle of  the road. I drove back for 4km reached a road that was detouring the place exposed to the wind but there was no guarantee about  the conditions of that road, because there were several bushes and fences the snowdrifts were on both sides but the center of the road was relatively clean, the only obstacle was a snowdrifts right before the intersection with the highway I sped up, "surfed" and floated on top of the snow landed on more packed snow on the main road. Five more minutes and I was home. I felt really blessed several times I thought I was going to spend the night in the car and many people did that. I got home at 1:15am, I was hungry and thirsty, but after changing the batteries of my camera I went out to take pictures of  the largest snow storm I ever witnessed in Italy.

I had electricity but no water and phone line.

I woke up this morning almost freezing no heating because the power was still out but water was back and no phone signal. I immediately dressed up  for running and went out, all the roads were snow packed and no cars around, I ran up to the lake and it was lots of fun. Most of the stuff was really powder like something that here is unusual, the reason is the cold wind coming straight down from Siberia. I did 9 miles and at least I was much warmer than when I woked up. Back home electricity has been restored and a warm shower was really welcomed.

In the afternoon I shoveled the snow for 2 hours to free the path to the garage and then went to sleep for a couple of hours.

This morning the sun was shining and the snow on the ground was just perfect for another good run. 10.5 miles half of them uphill to reach the top of a hill and enjoy a nice view. Upthere at 900m (I started at 500m) there was much more snow and it was much colder. Running on snow it is something I am really missing, it is a mixture of adventure and the same joy I had when I was a child.

No run today too much snow and ice on the road, 1h and 20 minutes on the bike trainer.

40 minutes on the bike trainer.

50 minutes on the bike trainer.

Trip to Bolzano. No run no bike.

My ADSL line is working on and off, and today another huge snow storm added about three feet of snow to the snow still frozen on the ground. This is really something huge here, there are no official snow plowers just farmers and construction companies are lending their tractors and construction machines to clean up the roads, so everything is a mess.

I went out at 10am with only a foot and a half of snow on the ground and I went straight uphill for 8k reaching the ridge of the crater where the wind coming straight from Siberia was moving huge trees like they were toothpicks. The roads were packed with snow but in some places the snow was piled up and I had to walk in knee deep snow. It was a fun adventure to cover 10.5 miles it took me about two hours. Once at home I was hungry, thirsty, cold and really tired, I had some pizzas and after a warm shower I went straight to bed for a 3 hours nap. When I woke up there was more snow on the ground, to kill some time I went in the basement, I jumped on the bike trainer and I spent on it about 70 minutes. Tomorrow if it keeps snowing I will repeat the same scheme.

Another great running  day in one foot of fresh snow, that was almost powder.

Yesterday it snowed  continuosly for 14 hours and this morning at 9am, the city looked like a ghost town, I was the only one around. I did the same road I did yesterday but this morning I was the first one to break the snow, no cars, dogs or wild boar have been there since stopped snowing last night. It means to cover 4k uphill with one foot of fresh snow it took me almost 40 minutes and then the remaining 2.5k were on some more packed snow but the pace was just slightly faster.

To cover 8.2 miles it took almost two hours, it was really fun. Next few days it won't be as fun as today because ice will be everywhere.

In the evening 30 minutes on the bike trainer.

I drove to the lake (about 3k) to be able to run for a half marathon on a flat road with packed snow. The sky was blue and the sun was blinding, I had to go back to the car after 5 miles because the snow was so deep for abou 500 meters that no cars or trucks or tractors could pass it. Once back to the car I went the same way again for another shorter out and back to finish with 13.3. Overall a great day out running.

In the afternoon 35 minutes on the stationary bike.

This morning, due to the recent snow showers, trains to Rome were on a "emergency schedule" (it means their schedule was going to be random), I decided to go running at 8am wait for the sun to melt the snow/ice and then going to Rome hoping that by 10 the train schedule would be almost back to normal. Everything went according to the plan with the only problem that my legs were slow to start and the snow/ice on the road made the whole run less pleasant than the previous days. The blue sky and snow everywhere was incredible. 7 miles in 1:20, nothing really fast.

No running  tonight too much ice on the roads tonight, after 500m I turned around and went home where I spent the next 65 minutes on the bike  trainer.

Another evening biking inside for 35 minutes, tomorrow night if the temperatures will keep rising I will be able to run outside again.

I went into this race without any big expectations. The last two weeks my training was sporadic and in the last month I didn’t put enough miles, slow or fast, in order to expect big things from this run. I thought it would be a good excuse to do a long run. The race it is just one hour driving from my house, it is supposed to be fast because it starts in the small town of Ferentillo 150 m higher than the finish place in Terni, but I will get to that later with more details.

This morning at 7am I left my house and drove to Terni, I got there at 8 and by 8:20 I was riding the bus to the start. Temperatures were about 41-50 F, but the thick cloud cover was announcing rain sooner or later in the morning. We started on time at 9am and with a couple of friends we decided to do a good run keeping a 8:00/mile pace until was possible. The first half is the fastest part because we loose 150 meters over 21k, but it is just a continuous up and down until km 17 when we entered Terni. At km 19 we said goodbye to the half marathoners and we left the town of Terni to do a long loop of 21k in the industrial area before returning to the finish line. As soon as we left Terni heading south heavy rain started with a strong cross wind. I kept my pace with this other friend until km 29 when we entered 2km of unpaved roads, at that point full of mud. At km 31 we were back on black top but my energies at that point were gone and my friend kept moving at his pace (he finished in 3:27, going faster each km). The last 10k was just a survival run I wanted to finish in decent conditions. I was at km32 in 2:39 and then I finished in 3:38, it means I was really done during the last km.

I wish I had enough energies to finish in 3:30 (along with my friend), but it didn’t happen, I was sore after the race like after any other good marathon, it wasn’t a training run. It means I have to start piling up more miles and more speed. Rome marathon in one month it will be another “training run” I don’t have any chance to hit 3:20 or better on a much more difficult course, at least it will keep me motivated to start a good training cycle for a fall marathon.

Just 20 minutes biking to relax my sore legs.

Another 20 minutes biking.

First miles after the marathon. I felt almost completely recovered, at the end of the run I was tired but not too bad.

Another four miles to try to recover and to shake some fatigue out of my poor dead legs.

Another slow and short and easy recovery run.

This morning I did my third Roma-Ostia half marathon, for the first time as a personal pacer of a dear friend. This was her first half marathon, she didn't train much in the last 2 months, but during the last year she put enough miles in her legs that I was confident she would be able to finish it (although she was not quite sure).

We started with the third wave almost at the back of 12000 runners in this way we would keep our pace under control during the early miles and still be able to pick up people until the end. This race is very well organized and the road is wide, after the first 2 miles it is just a straightway from Rome to the sea, the only "view" are the pine trees every 20 m and the sea far away at the end. But the real "view" was the stream of 10000 runners ahead of us that was really incredible. We kept for the first 5k (almost completely flat) our goal pace of 6:10/km (actual pace 6:09/km), she was still talking and in control. The second 5k was the hardest one with the only "hill" (1k long steady incline) but the time was still good (6:11/km partial time) and her mood was great knowing that from the half way to the sea was "just" slightly downhill and then flat.

The weather improved along the way with clouds and fog at the start and then by the time we were halfway we had sun clear skies and a light breeze.

Next 5k was our fastest one 6:05/km, we took advantage of the "downhill" and we got to the 15k mark still relaxed enough and pushing a good pace. At km16 there was a sad scene, a fellow runner was on the road in cardiac arrest (his face was blue) and doctors were right there attempting CPR, from what I found later he is in good conditions right now, but then it was a sad reminder that even during an incredible fun day things can go bad in a second. We didn't talk for the whole km, then she started complaining that things were becoming more difficult and her feet were sore. I tried my best to have her focused on each km sign visible from great distance and on the fact the we could see and smell the sea. I did my best to keep her pace up, she was slowing down a little bit (final 6k were at 6:07/km, probably 6:04/km from 15 to 18 and then 6:10/km the last three), but her mood was still great, the last km she gave her best effort and we finished in 2:09:14. She didn't think was possible to finish under 2:15, but I suspect that if she did  train just a little bit more she would have easily finished under two hours.

After changing our clothes on the beach, we took the train and the subway to go back to the start and then we drove home. I was so happy for her, she now wants to start train again taking advantage of the spring weather and nail by herself (she considered cheating having me along the way) a good HM time.

I want to start training hard again, adding some speed work, but tonight I just wanted to be sure that my legs are fully recovered from the marathon. I will do some repeats tomorrow or wednesday I will decide later. For tonight 6.2 miles were already enough.

I didn't want to go run, it was windy and coldish, and I didn't feel ready to go fast.

Once I got to the start of my running loop I decided to go progressively faster and if I couldn't keep the pace I would finish with the pace the was left in my legs. I started the first km at 5:31/km and finished the 10th at 4:22/km, with 4:40 average pace. All things considered it was my best run of the last two months in terms of feelings. I need more of these days.

Today we had a wonderful spring day and tonight the weather was still warm without wind. 5 miles in 42:50 recover from yesterday and then 30 minutes on the bike trainer.

6.2 inglourious miles, actually I was proud of them I started really tired and then at  mile 4 suddenly I felt much better and finished the last 2 miles at faster pace. Today it was really warm, when I got home at 6:30pm the temperature inside the house was 16°C while outside was 18°C.

I thought a rest day would help my long run today, but I am not sure right now. My goal was to finish 25k at 5:00/k, but since the beginning I struggled to stay on pace, I finished at 5:11/k average pace and somehow I am happy because I didn't give up. The other positive thing it is the second week of the year above 50miles, my real goal for the next three months is to go consistently above 60/week. I want just to go back where I was  last october and the only way is to pile up as many  miles as possible. Tomorrow it will be a snowboarding day, one of the last one of the  season. By the way today the weather  was really great sunny and 20°C.

Snowboarding the whole day in Abruzzo. It was a great sunny day.

Tonight the temperatures were lower again, still above freezing, but spring for now is gone.

8.6 miles in 1:10 in the industrial area.

Another 8 miler at a slow pace, it was not raining but it was humid and coldish.

Tonight I didn't have enough time to run, 4 miles at faster pace in 29:16, 4:33/km. 

Another lazy night, after 4 miles my legs thought it was better going home. I have some lingering aches in the right foot, a knot in the right quadriceps since last december, but overall it is the feeling of being tired that is killing most of my runs. I am not sure if it is just a feeling or I am really tired and I need to rest. For the next month my running schedule will be based on how I feel without crashing and burning myself. I hope I will eventually get better.

Another 4 miler.

This morning I witnessed one of those rare events I haven't experienced in a while: running with two other human beings.

I wanted to do at least a 13 miler, one of the other guy was happy with 9 and the third one was flexible and ended up doing 12.

It was a beatiful morning with clear skies and a strong wind from the north. It was a bit chilly at the start but when we finished we were warm, but no sweat.

We started at 5:30/ km and by the time we finished we were well under 5:00/km as average pace, final time was 4:55/km. Having company most of the time definitively helped me and somehow I think I am on my way back to a decent shape. I am not there yet, this run would have been a great training run if it was the beginning of january, now I am somehow behind my schedule and for next sunday I am not going to change my marathon plan(that is going out at 5:00/km). The best part was at the end when I discovered that my legs were not completely shot and I could have kept the 4:30/km we were pushing during the last 5 km for at least another 5k or longer. I have to be patient and enjoying what I can do right now.

A nice 6.2 miles along the Adriatic sea in Pescara, sunny and windy.

Here we don't have the DST yet but at 7 pm there was still some light, in  a couple of weeks it will be really great going out at night and being able to run with light in the sky.

Tonight 7.1 miles in 1 hour, a couple of more runs in the next couple of days and then rest  until the marathon.

This week should be my taper week, but because I haven't done any real big mileage week in the last five months, I will keep my usual running schedule until wednesday. Then I will take two days off, saturday a few miles and sunday the big race.

My goal for sunday race will be to finish in 3:30, last year after the marahon I thought under 3:20 would be my only goal for this year, but then things changed and my winter running was not as good as I wanted. Finish in 3:30 it will be a great result.

Tonight 5 miles in 44 minutes.

Last run before the marathon 4 miles in 29:55 (4:39/km) just to remember the good old times. Just to show that is no longer my MP I left so much sweat on the road I couldn't believe it. Three days of rest and then sunday the big day. 

Two miles to discharge some energy.

This morning I woke up at 5:30am and I was ready to drive to Rome at 6:00. We (12 people from 6 different towns) were supposed to meet in front of my house at that time, the last person of 12 eventually arrived at 6:15 when the rest of the group was already anxious to leave. A few jokes to relax and we were on our way to Rome, we left our cars at one of the subway stations outside Rome, we used the facilities at the station and then we boarded the train that was crowded at 7:00 am on Sunday like on rush hours on Monday morning. We reached the Colosseo starting area, we quickly dropped our bags and headed to our corrals. Inside the corral I was sitting on the cobblestone just 40 meters from the starting line watching all the elite athletes warming up. The sun was up and just sitting there I was already hot. At 9:00 the wheelchair athletes started, at 9:05 we started. It was amazing watching the top elites immediately creating a gap in just 100 meters and disappearing right after the first turn. At that point I started concentrating on my own task. My goal was to keep 5:00/km until it was no longer possible. My first 5k were actually a little bit faster (4:52/km) because I didn’t want to be passed by the whole crowd and then I settled down on a more regular pace. After 10k I was fine, running was smooth and breathing was regular, but I was already drenched in sweat, I used any aid and “sponge” station to water myself inside and outside.

At km 17 we reached St Peter and it was the usual incredible view, I was shivering in front of the emptiness of the St Peter plaza (it means I am getting old and cheesy). I reached the half way in 1:46 and still somehow in control, but my legs were stuck on one speed and that one only and I knew immediately that I would end up slowing down progressively. Next 5k were the new part of the course, that was much better than the last editions when we were running for 2k on a freeway along with cars on the next lane, I was slowing down to 5:20-5:30/km, but I didn’t have any desire to push the pace and to die to finish in 3:30 and I kept whatever pace I had because it was the fastest way to reach the finish line. Once I reached mile 20 we entered Rome downtown and there I felt much better (not a “second wind” but something similar), lots of people on the streets and I thought I could still finish under 3:40. Until km 38 I was still in good shape, then the last 4 k were a struggle to survive. This is the hardest part of the course because there are a few hills especially in the last 2 k, the cobblestone is so uneven that feels like running on a rocky trail and my pace went down to 5:40-5:50 and then I did it the last 2.2k in 13 minutes and change.

I was happy to have finished another marathon and my legs were not dead at the end, I took a 5 minutes nap while waiting for the others and immediately felt great.

My current marathon fitness is around 3:38 (my last 2 marathon times) and today if the course was not so slow it would have probably been the same time. I would like to think that is not possible that I have lost almost 30 minutes (in my marathon time) since October, even though I ran fewer miles and without much speed. I did the last three marathons with the idea of training through them and finishing them without crashing, but the net result was that I trained through them and I crashed at the end of each of them, just because I didn’t care much about the final result and I “accepted” the slow down. I was somehow “defeated” without fighting and when the mind is not there the body fell apart (in the last two weekends I did two medium runs much faster than today's marathon pace).

Rome marathon still remains an incredible experience giving the runners the possibility to run through some beautiful place, but it requires lots of respect because it is much slower and harder than altitude profile shows. Except for a friend of mine who did his PB, the rest of our group crashed big time, as I did, but at least they were chasing their PB.

In a couple of days I will be able to run again and from there I will start rebuilding my confidence for the upcoming races.

Rest day.

Another rest day, 30 minutes on the bike trainer this morning.

This morning I woke up with a sore throat, it didn't get worse during the day, but it didn't improve either. Probably I am incubating/fighting a bug at the same time. Tonight I was debating with myself wheter to run or not, I decided to wait until tomorrow if my general conditions don't deteriorate. My legs feel almost back to normal, this  morning I tested them with a 200m dash, all out, to catch the train, I was quite happy about how they responded, once on the train.

First run post marathon, 5 miles with some residual daylight from 6 to 6:50pm.

I felt good, legs are almost back to normal, my lungs are still coughing up some of the stuff piled up in the last two days.

I wanted to test some of the hills of the upcoming trail marathon, especially my legs on them, and at the same time spend at least two hours on my feet. I accomplished both missions, I did two big hills, 11.1 miles with half of them uphill and half of them dowhill, in 2:23:48, nothing really fast because even the downhill was technical and it was difficult to push the pace without risking a face landing (plus I am a wimp going downhill).

During the last three miles I was really thirsty and hungry, next time I will bring some food and liquids. In three weeks I will be happy to post this time half way through the race.

I wanted to celebrate the first day with the Daylight Saving Time with a big run at night. I got home at 6:30 with plenty of light but I soon discovered that my neighbour had his house flooded. He opened the sprinklers but one of the pipes going under the roof was damaged during the winter by the freezing weather and started leaking, when he got back home two hours later his main floor was under 10cm of water everywhere. By the time I got home most of the water has been removed, but the ceiling was still dripping, I helped him to put most the furniture on some logs to avoid further water damage.

I went running at 7:30pm enjoying the last 30 minutes of light and it was really pleasant, at 8pm was already dark but I was by the lake, no cars and no artificial lights, with enough light to be able to continue until 8:30 when it was really dark. I did 6.2 miles in 55 minutes.

Nice run 5 miles trying to finish at 10k pace. This was my progression: 5:58/k, 5:17, 4:55, 4:55, 4:17, 4:17, 4:11, 3:58. Overall 37:57, 4:43/k. It feels good to reintroduce some kind of speed in my legs.

Another progression run finishing 8 miles with the last four at 4:30/km, overall I am feeling great 8.1 miles in 1:06:06. In the next two days I will be in Padova probably I will be able to run friday morning, saturday I want to do another medium run on the marathon trails.

I am in Padova no time to run.

Second day in Padova  too tired this morning to go running before going to work. Tonight I will be back home and tomorrow a long run will bring back my normal schedule.

Today my plan was to stay out on my feet on trails for three hours with at least two big hills. This would be a good way to become acquainted with the upcoming trail marathon.

This morning I was not alone, Daniele, came with me. We started at 8:15am going straight uphill for about 4k, the first 1.5k were still not that bad then the really steep part began. We managed to keep a "running pace" without walking, once on top we turned around we went downhill, not very fast because the terrain was rock and roots infested but we reached the bottom safe and sound, after 400m of flat terrain we climbed our second peak. This one was longer and a little bit higher but overall was more runnable, once on top we were just 10k from the start, but it took us  about 1:20minutes. At that point we went downhill on a asphalt road for 2k and  then we jumped on another trail to dive for another 2k straight downhill to teach our muscles to survive the downhill damage. At this point we had 4k on a flat sandy section where we struggled to keep 6:00/km the sun was high in the sky and it was hot because there was no shade. At the end of this section our car were just 2k away, but we were not totally  trashed yet and we had 140 minutes only in our legs, we decided to climb again the first hill, but this time halfway from the top we were forced to power walking first and then pushing our hands on our knees to keep moving. The last few downhill km to the end were really hard, our legs were heavy but overall we were really satisfied. We did almost 15 miles in 3:05, next week will try to replicate this effort to achieve a decent conditioning for the race.

Five slow miles on a flat road to recover from yesterday.

It was a perfect night with a cloudy sky, a light breeze and a few rain drops here and there.

I started at 6min/km and finished at 5min/km, 10 miles in 1:28, I felt really great. With 100 days like this in the next 4 months I would be on top of the world.

I started with a recovery run and finished at good pace. Overall a 10k in 55:56. Tomorrow I will attempt the first speed  work of the season.

First speed workout in the last 6 months. I wasn't sure about distance, speed and number of repeats I could honestly sustain. I decided to go for 1000m distance trying to cover the distance at 10k pace (right now for me an aggressive 10k pace would be around 4:00/km) with  2 min recovery jog. I left undetermined the number of repeats. I started with 500m warmup and then I started: 3:55, 3:58 (that is much better), 3:58, 4:01 (I felt this was the beginning of the end), 3:54 (I really went all out in this one, but maybe I can keep going...), 4:07 (this is really the end, I was well beyond all out but I couldn't keep the pace any more). Two more minutes of light jogging and then I finished with a 3k cooldown.

It was a perfect evening with a light breeze and no sun, I was surprised about this training run, I am confident that in a month or so I will be able to complete 10 repeats around this pace (4:00-4:05/k).

Long day at work, I got home at 8:30pm with no desire to go for a run. Tomorrow it will be a different day, I hope.

I did a slow run on some of the trails of the upcoming trail marathon, with the stretch I did tonight I have probably just 5-6k that I don't know at all. 7.5 miles in 1:08:41.

Another medium run on trails with Daniele. Last big run before next weekend race.. This one was a two-hill run, last weekend was a three-hill, but today we felt safer (the race is in 8 days, no reason to risk) going a little bit shorter. We finished really cruising during the last 3 miles and overall we finished about 30"/km faster than the last two weeks. The fast finish was good for our mood and at the end we were not trashed. We finished in 2:25 and we celebrated having a  "breakfast" with croissant and cappuccino.

Seven easy miles, no soreness in my legs from yesterday (that is good) just some general fatigue. A few more miles during the week, not an official taper, and then sunday the big day. My only goal for sunday it will be racing, going out with the goal of doing the best that I can. I have already experienced, during the last three marathons, the feeling of going out easy and then crashing anyway, I will crash big time on sunday and it will be very painful, but at least I will have tried to do my best.

I spent this vacation day, just sleeping in and eating, no runs.

Speed work tonight. 12X400m at 5k pace with 200m recovery jog. My target pace was 90 seconds but I didn't know if I could keep it for the whole series. Last time I did a 400m series at 5k pace was probably two years ago. I ended up going consistently faster: 86, 86, 90, 87, 87, 88, 89, 84, 89, 86, 89, 90 AP 87,6. At the end of the 6th repeat I couldn't remember (my brain didn't have much oxygen available) how many repeats were left, I had to wait for my Garmin to tell me how many, but the first time I missed it because it was dark (that is the reason I went really fast in that one) then I turned the light on and I saw that I had four left. I felt really good throughout the whole run.

I didn't need a fast run tonight after last night workout and 4 days before a trail marathon but "things" at work are messed up, I badly needed some good pain to feel better. I finished 4 miles at marathon pace (in 30:03) and when I got back to the car I was feeling a little bit better. Problems obviously didn't go away, but at least my brain stopped constantly thinking about them.

I did an unofficial race tonight... I got on the subway train at 6:30pm, at 6:48 the subway arrived at the station with 2 minutes to spare before the train to go home was about to leave. We (all the people on the subway train) were aware that we had to sprint all out (in civilian clothing and shoes), doing 100m on the subway platform, 4 flights of stairs, 200m of tunnels and passages (with a 90 degrees corner) and then the final climb on 2 flight of stairs to the train platform. As soon as the door opened we started really fast, I was in the middle of the pack, but when we reached the first set of stairs at the top I was already in the leading position, but my backpack was shaking too much, I removed it and kept it in my hand, from that point on I was on a time trial to beat the clock. When I reached the train  platform the train was arriving, one last sprint and I made it.

About one third of the people in the same race made it ok, some of them were on the verge of puking once on the train, others were sweating profusely, but we all looked at each other satisfied of the accomplished race.

This is a typical side effect of tapering.

This a trail marathon held on my summer running ground, it starts in the small town of San Martino al Cimino and finishes in the same place after 43.5k and three major hills, the highest point is just 1000m high but some of the hills are challenging, the organizers claim that there is a total 1500m altitude gain and a consequent 1500m altitude loss. This year it was the second year of the race and last year everything went smoothly, but this year the whole course was changed in many places and the heavy rain fall of the  last two days transformed this race in a organizational nightmare. Last year there were 7 aid stations that made my camelback useless, plus much cooler temperatures, I thought, were making useless to carry an extra weight on my shoulders. I did my home work running some of the unknown sections and carefully studying on the map the new layout. I am aware in this kind of races you are on your own but I ended up not being prepared for what we found. I got to the start one hour before the official start  after a 10min drive, a few minutes after 8:30 we took off. The weather was around 10 degrees Celsius, cloudy sky and no rain and no rain in the forecast, but heavy rain fell until last night and for sure it was going to be muddy. I reached the first aid station at km 5 in about 30 minutes, I got some water and then we started the first climb, hoping that in 6-7 more km we would have another aid stations. The sun came out we reached km 15 and no aid station in sight (we were told at the finish line that the volunteers didn't show up because they thought that with the rain the race would be cancelled). We climbed the second major hill in a state of major dehydration my face was caked with salt and mud, we reached the top and we found the second aid station at km 20. We got water, coke and lemonade and we were told that all the remaining aid stations were in place and everything was fine. Even though I have already noticed that all major intersections were devoid of people giving directions, there were clear marks on trees and bushes. Right after this aid station the major disaster happened, someone last night removed a written sign and the whole group of leaders and followers at the top of that hill was misdirected on the wrong side of the hill, downhill. After about 700m I noticed lack of flags and with four others we went back up and found the right spot and we even identified the hole on the ground where the sign was posted and then removed (this was not RD's fault). Most of the leaders went down for 5-6 km, after 1k they found the course marked again (that was km 37 of the race, but they didn't know that) and only when they found the km mark saying 40k they came back up. At that point I was mad but I didn't know that many people did a much bigger mistake. Our group of four reached km 25 and no aid station was in sight, we were mad and we kept pressing on, we were on the last year course and we noticed that the year old painted signs were still there but the new ones were not there, we decided to finish that section and reevaluate the situation. When we got to the asphalt road we noticed that the volunteers were expecting the runners from the opposite direction and we realized that the RD didn't change the map but changed the course and we missed the aid station and the new section (we discovered later on that the aid station at km25 was misplaced at km 35 where there was already another aid station). At that point I had already ran about 3.5-4 km longer and more importantly we were really dehydrated and with the highest hill to climb. On the way up we were caught by a guy going very fast and he was very mad, he was until km20 the leader and he was trying to catch up his position, he kept asking us how many people still ahead and we had no idea. We reached the top and there was a thick cloud cover/fog, we were really dehydrated and as a side effect I was shivering and I was cold. The 30k aid station was in place they gave us coke lemonade and water and they told us they knew something was wrong because this year leaders were about one later than last year. I ate a banana I tried to drink as much as possible but my stomach was really upset even though I was really thirsty. Most of the fast guys were passing everybody again in the next few kms, my pace on the downhill was slower, the uneven terrain and the mud made my pace almost as slow as the uphill. From km 32 to the end was a net downhill with some shorter or longer ups but mostly downhills. Going down and with the sun I slowly started warming up. One of my friend caught me at about km35 (he went 5k longer) and left me there, I couldn't react. At km35 the aid station was there along with the aid station of km 25, I had another banana and more liquids hoping to keep them down. Our group of four was a group of three but with one new member. We worked together making jokes about this major race disaster and just moving together toward the end. At that point the friend who passed me 3-4km before passed us again, he did another mistake, the same thing happened to an another guy who passed us twice during a 2km stretch. At that point my garmin died (I was about 4:34 into the race). We got at km40 and the final downhill approach was in sight our collaboration finished there and we tried to finish as soon as possible. We skipped the last aid station 1km from the end (it was placed there by the RD when he heard of what happened in the morning) and we dived to the finish line. I was the third of our group I didn't have any zip left in my legs for the final sprint. I didn't see my finish time I will update it in the next few days if they will publish the final results. This year I managed not to puke after the finish line, I successfully removed my timing chip caked with mud, got a cool finisher black pile sweather saying Finisher of the Ecomaratona dei Monti Cimini. The overall winner was my friend I was running with during the last two weekends, he felt guilty about it and he didn't want to be awarded the first prize (a trip to Tromso Norway for the midnight summer marathon). His time was about 50 minutes slower than last year on a much faster course this year. I don't know what he ended up doing because I went to the car while shivering. When I entered the car the skin color of my face was grey, I was really cold, I blasted the heater on and drove home. Usually I take a cold bath but today I couldn't stand it. I got a hot shower, drank lots of hot tea and then I wrapped up in a down comforter in my bed and tried to warm up. After one hour I felt almost back to normal started eating something and on my couch started typing this.

I didn't have any goal for this race, for sure I wanted to race hard from the beginning to the end, I didn't want just to finish I wanted to feel the pain of my best effort. I was happy about that. I was mad about not having the camelback with me and doing two course mistakes but all things considered except for a few people, I was one of the people doing fewer extra miles. This is just a reminder that for this races you have to be able to improvise and rescue yourself in spite of what could potentially happen. Time to heal and resume a more regular training schedule. No more marathons until october.

No run tonight but my legs are in really good shape (all the downhill in the last month really helped), no problems going down the stairs, my left ankle is just a little bit sore from some twisting here and there yesterday. A did 30 minutes on the bike trainer just to enjoy some sweat.

An easy five 5k in 30 minutes to enjoy the cool evening weather. My legs are almost completely recovered, I have just general fatigue.

I went running under a dark black sky, after 200m an heavy downpour started, I made it back home before getting completely wet. I went in the basement and spent next 50 minutes on the bike trainer. For my readers, curious about last sunday trail marathon, pictures can be found here and here some of them are really beatiful!!! 

An big thunderstorm drowned my mileage. I went 2.5k from my car, I got wet in about 2 minutes, there was almost zero visibility, I run back to the car and it was the end for tonight. 5k in 24:15.

Nice evening for a run, no rain and cool temperatures. 13.1k in 1:12.

I went to the lake with the goal of doing the whole loop around (12.9 miles) and doing it at least at 5:00/km that would be a nice MP for me right now. I started with great conditions sunny with passing clouds and cool temperatures. I was exactly on pace at km 7 (35:00), then I started going a little bit faster each passing km. I finished 13.1 in 1:42:45 4:52/km. I was very happy about the final time but I have never felt comfortble at any pace since the beginning. I hope it is some lingering fatigue of the marathon and it will be better in the next few weeks. I would really go back to the feeling of running this time and not considering it a big deal as I was used to do it a few months ago.

Nice progression run from 6:00 to 4:12/km average pace 5:18/km.

I was sick during the last three days with sore throat and fever (the usual post marathon sickness). 8 miles at slow pace tonight.

5 easy miles, summer arrived today.

10 miles in 1:16:24. I wish I could say this was a MP run, honestly it was very close to a good tempo run at HM pace. I have lots of miles and speed to do before this pace will be again at MP.

Rest day.

8 miles at slow pace. I am 140 miles behind my goal of 200 miles per month, those 140 miles are what I really need to go back in some kind of decent shape.

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.

10k in 57 minutes and change, nice relaxing run.

I didn't have a great desire to go running, I was still tired and it was hot. I drove to the lake and started at very slow pace, after 1 mile a met a friend coming in the opposite direction he was finishing his last 7k going at 5:00/k, I went with him and things were much better. When I was left alone I kept going even faster and finished 10 miles in 1:17:55. I was satisfied considering I didn't think it was possible to go faster the 6:00/k at the start.

Another long day at work, 8 miles at whatever pace for 7 miles, during the last mile I felt good and went almost all out. I have done the last mile in less than 6:00.

1k warm up, 4k in 15:58, 2.2k cooldown.

Tempo run at MP, 10 miles on a roller course in 1:13:29.

Travel day no run.

I am back to my normal routine and routes around the lake. Two more stressfull days at work and then I will have some more relaxing time. I did 8 slow miles, nothing special.

I had a weird pain on the lateral side of my right foot (it developed throughout the day), it doesn't sound like my "usual" low level plantar fascitis. I had company tonight so I decided to go running anyway and keep it short and easy, my friend was running for the first time in over two years, so he was the perfect companion. We did 5 miles at really slow pace.

Thirty minutes after finishing the pain was much worse and I was limping. I put ice and took NSAID, I hope it will improve.

Since last wednesday I cannot walk without limping and I spend most of the day at work avoiding walking. At home I keep my foot in a ice/water bath. After almost a week without running and my right foot still in pain, in spite of rest, ice and NSAID, in the next few days I am going to have a X-ray hoping that the stress fracture is not there and it is just a bad tendonitis, that eventually will fo away.

At least when I will start running again I will be fully recharged and rested.

I have been away from the blog for a while. I thought I had some kind of stress fracture back in june, but the X-ray was inconclusive and because it was also found that I had for sure a calcanear spur, the doctor told me to stay away from running for a couple of weeks and go to see him to reevaluate things if and when the swelling of the ankle was gone (not a typical spur presentation). I was good for two weeks not even cross training, I went to see the doctor again and the swelling was gone and we both concluded that was just a "normal" case of subcalcanear spur related plantar fasciitis. Told me I could start running again (there is not much to do about it except for the usual) and doing some "exercises" with a golf ball, rolling it under the trigger point and see what happens. I was advised, in this order, to iced it whenever I need it, then FANS or just quit running more simply. The last resort would be "shock-wave treatement" and I will start this in the next month or so.

For the last two and a half month I went running and the morning after I was in pain, after one month both feet had the same pain, probably I have a spur under both feet. I felt a little bit down, my feet are almost normal while running, it is just the morning after I am in such painful state that I regretted running the night before, the faster I go more pain I get, running become really a punishment. Right now I just keep trying to keep a minimum mileage, at slow pace, endure whatever pain I have and waiting for the shock-wave treatment. The golf ball exercises improved dramatically the situation in my right foot (the first one to be in pain) but didn't do much for the left. I am hoping for some slow improvements on that side too.

I felt bad because I wasted two good months of light and already running at 8pm is becoming difficult, because is dark. The only "positive" thing is that between pain and lack of exercise I lost my appetite and my weight went down to 69kg (from 71) something I didn't see in 10 years.

My run tonight was a little bit longer 7,5 miles in 1:08 something.

7.5 miles at slow pace, my garmin after a faithful service for exactly 4 long years decided to started dying for no apparent reason. Hard reset, soft reset it would come back up and the die again. I started shopping around and I would really buy the 205 or the 305 model but they seem hard to find. I will keep looking.

This morning my garmin was still doing the same show, I will give it a few more tests in the next few days and then I will sacrifice it on a holy fire to the gods of running. Nothing special about today's run. Tomorrow I will attempt my first "race" in a while to see if I can do 13k under 8min/mile and see whether my legs and my feet can take this kind of stress.

There should and electromagnetic storm around me because when I was trying to drive home my car decided not too start, I was on top of a short hill and it was easy to jump start the car and managed to drive home. It is probably the battery, monday I will deal with that.

First race in a while, after a low and slow mileage summer and still in pain early in the morning. I wanted to do this race just to evaluate my fitness considering I have done in 2009 and 2010  55:24 and 54:58. My goal was to finish under 1 hour and if I felt decent trying to stay under 58:30, that is 4:30/km.

This race is held in a small town, Orte, the course starts 100 m lower than the main plaza where is the finish line and goes on a rolling loop for 11k and it climbs up to the very top of the town during the last two km. Many guys and girls around here have their best 10k during this race, because there are not many flat 10k where to test your speed.

I got there at 9:00 am, found my captain to get the bib number, changed clothes and then after a quick stop I lined up in the middle of the crowd. The start is usually crowded but I didn't mind to start slow and to have people to pass along the way. My goal was to stay at 4:30/km and then along the way evaluate my legs and my feet. At km 5 I was at 4:27 average pace and I felt good, I decided to leave the group of people I was running with to see if I could make up some time for the final slow 2k. The chasing game continued until I reached the finish line, just during the final climb I probably passed more than 10 people.

Overall I was happy about the time and the feeling, I honestly did my best and my legs and feet were ok after. I am writing this on monday morning and my feet are in pain 2/10 my right one, 8/10 my left one, this was somehow expected. The good news is it will go away during the day, it is just a painful reminder. I have miles and speed to rebuild slowly and patiently.

This is a special day in my running career, exactly nine years ago today I switched to half biker/half runner to full time runner and I started to train for my first race: the turkey trot up city creek canyon (in 2003 the start was at the gate and not from Capitol Hill and that year we didn't do the full course but we turned around at the 1.5 mile mark because there was snow on the ground). I started recording my training on january 2005, during the first year and a half I was writing my mileage on a paper calendar, so right now considering that unregistered period of time I am above 17000 miles. 

Just some blabbing to add some interest to 9.3miles at slow pace, the last three were done when the sun was gone at it was dark, cool, but really dark.

Another good run, slow, with the final miles in the dark, tonight I had a reflective vest and a headlamp.

No run tonight, the heavy rain destroyed my plan to go out. The only bad thing: my feet with or without running still hurt.

Instead going running alone and slow I went with a couple of friends at night to do this race.

I wanted to try some fast km and see where I am in terms of fitness and consequent foot pain the morning after. We drove at 7:15 pm to the small town of Barbarano where the city decided to organize this race to start the festivities of the "snail", for three days from the afternoon until midnight there will be some kind of fair serving food and the snails, cooked in different ways, are the main dish in most of the food stands. This was the first edition of the race and we didn't expect many people, instead there were some 100-120 runners (that is a good number for a local race in the middle of the week on a first edition) with some national level athletes. The race organizer knows many people and this helped to have some fast competitors. After registration we went for a warm up to explore the course that was a loop of 1650m, measured by a biker, with a short climb of about 30m and the rest was a gentle uphill and gentle downhill, with 6 sharp narrow corners in the section going through the old part of the town on cobblestone. Overall we were pleased that was quite flatish for our local standards and was going to be faster, actually probably the second faster race in terms of course in a radius of 50km.

At the start was announced that the loop has to be repeated four times and after some more chat we started. I wanted to try to see if I could finish at 4:10/km and one of my friends, faster than me, told me he would be glad to come with me and pacing me. We started on time at 8:30pm and after some elbowing on the narrow road we spread out and we did the first km at 3:49/km that is a little bit on the fast side, but to escape the crowd was necessary, second km was 3:53/km still fast but more reasonable. After that my friend and I got separated by a couple of meters and I couldn't hear his splits, I was running "naked", but just by feeling we slowed down to a more reasonable 4:0something. After the second lap we stopped passing people and we maintained our positions until the end. We avoided being lapped by the top runners by 1/2 km and successfully finished in 26:56 at 4:04/km average pace.

I was happy about the outcome, this morning (I am writing this on friday morning) my feet are still locked in pain, but with some walking around they should be back to a more manageable status. My legs are fine and I don't feel too fatigued (in spite less than 5 hours of sleep). This race had a great organization, there was a coolmax type of shirt and socks as race package (the registration was 10 euros so overall a good deal), I got 8th in my age group and got another shirt, different style, and then after some light refreshment right after the race (cookies, pizza and watermelon) there was a huge pasta party and wine on the streets of the town for all runners and all the people who were there watching the race. Great feeling overall.

Five slow miles, after five days of rain sun and mosquitoes are back.

Micro taper before tomorrow HM. It will be more a long run than a real race but I need to be cautious given my general lack of training. My new Garmin arrived today.

Third race in 8 days, I really want to go back in some decent shape and I will try to use racing to ramp up my mileage and speed. My goal #1 for today HM is to go out comfortably hard hoping to finish in 1:35 and feeling "fresh" at the end, goal #2 would be finishing with the same time and feeling wasted at the end, #3 finishing under 1:40 feeling whatever and last goal finishing under 1:45. For a quick description of this race you can read my last year report.

Like last year it was warm at 9:00 am but the anticipated start at 9:30 should make things a little bit easier. This race is constantly growing, this morning there were 1100 people to squeeze in a two lane road, if the number of runners keeps going up they have to make some adjustment to the starting line.We started 5 minutes late, the first km was crowded, but after that I was able to run my own pace. First km was 4:44, second one 4:38, third 4:31 (my target pace was 4:30/km) but for sure 4:30 was a little bit too ambitious for my current fitness level and I really didn't want to finish wasted with a 1:35, so I adjusted to the idea of keeping a 4:38/km for the rest of the race especially during the second half that is hillier and in full sun.

I crossed the timing mat at km 10 in 45:43 (4:35/km) after a couple of kms I entered the slower part of the race with some hills, in this section I manage to keep my pace steady and I started passing people slowing down. I really pushed the last 2km (4:20 e 4:13) to finish under 1:37:30, my final time was 1:37:05 (4:36/km).

This is my second slowest HM, just by 2 seconds, but I am happy because even if I missed my #1 goal I was feeling somehow "fresh" at the end. I walked 2km to my car, went home, mowed the lawn, took a shower, had lunch with my family and then fell asleep. I was woke up at 3:30pm by a huge thunderstorm that dumped lots of needed water on my garden and at 5 pm when the sun was back again I went to the lake for a slow run to finish 20 miles for the day.

After a few slow miles at the beginning I started going progressively faster and finished 7 miles with a couple of kms at HM pace.

Overall I am happy about my mileage and speed, still lots of work to do. Pain in the calcaneal area is still there tonight, but not worse than other days, a great day.

Seven miles in 59:13. Recovery/training or whatever I am doing these days is going fine.

8.1 miles in 1:09:48. I finished my run at 8:15 when it was dark, if it was a month ago I would have done a few more miles. I felt really good especially at the end.

Tempo run at HM pace or close. I finished 10k in 46:55, 4:41/k. I thought/hoped it would be much easier and a little bit faster for that effort, but I need to be patient and keep training.

Relaxing run just ahead another big storm, total time 43:59.

A slow and easy 10k in between two storms in 52:37. Tomorrow I will attempt a medium run at MP.

I wanted to go a little bit longer around 15-16 miles, but I did too many miles this week and at the end I felt the lack of steam and will power in my legs. I finished 21.1k at what would be right now an aggressive MP, 13.1 in 1:42:17 4:51/k. I am really satisfied about my weekly mileage, it is nice to be back on a solid schedule, my left foot is slowly improving, my right foot is back to normal, I can see the light at the end of this tunnel. I really hope to keep a decent running schedule for the rest of the year in order to regain my fitness and speed.

Just a relaxing run in Pescara along the Adriatic sea. Nothing fast, I wanted just to enjoy the sun and relax.

Tonight I managed to have the company of two of my running friends, the plan was to start easy and the move a little bit faster during the second half. We started slow for the first 3k and then things got a little bit out of control, we went from running one next to the other to run in a single line, doing  a nice "train" like professional cyclists, exchanging the lead to push the pace. Overall the AP was 4:43/k but the last 4-5k were done at HMP (their HM pace) on a uphill terrain. We finished at 8:10pm and it was really dark, we waited 20 minutes to cooldown and then we drove home.

I am on vacation for the rest of the week and I am planning to run as much as possible. This morning I started with a 13.1 in 1:58:46, nothing fast, this afternoon I will try a few more miles.

I added 6.2 miles at 5pm at slow pace, just to add some miles. I was somehow tired at the beginning after 30 minutes and 5k I felt much better and added some kind of speed to my slow jog. 1:01 for a 10 k.

A good slow run in the morning, if everything goes OK by saturday I will have all the rules of the good runner trashed or I will be trashed. I feel good, my feet are not worse than usual and I really want to do some miles. It is really sad that this year I have never done so far a 70 mile week and just last week the first week above 60. I am doing all these miles really slow, but so far my legs are in really good shape, it help I am on vacation and taking an afternoon nap.

13.1 in 2:02:15.

This morning I was tired, I was dreaming doing another 13 miler, but 7 was what I could maintain. I need a nap in the afternoon.

Morning run at slow pace and then night race to be used as a speed workout.

The morning run was OK, 6.2 miles in 58 and change.

In the afternoon I went to Rome and on the way back I got stuck in traffic, I got to Viterbo 6 minutes after the start and I could not find the guy with my bib number, otherwise I would have started anyway to chase the last runners to score some points for my team. I waited for my friends to finish the race and then really disappointed went home for a late dinner.

This morning my legs were fresh and with a couple of friends (one of them ran last night, so he was sore) with did an easy 10k in about 60 minutes. After the first loop they both went home and I did a second one plus some extra to reach the HM distance in 52 minutes. Overall a great run with the second half at marathon pace.

This was my first week above 70 miles of the whole year, having most of the week off from work it helped especially for the recovery part. I will take advantage of the extra time in the next few days to run a few more extra miles and then I will resume a more regular schedule.

This morning I was really tired and the plan of going out for 2 hours and covering 13 miles, it was more a fantasy. I stayed home all morning, had lunch at my parents house and then in the afternoon my legs started smiling again. At 3pm I went out and ended up doing 7 miles, first half slow second half at HM pace. It was hot but I am glad I decided to wait to go running until the afternoon because I was feeling much better and my pace was faster.

One of the last run around the lake during the week, it is really getting dark very early. 10 miles in 1:26:14. It is nice just to add miles.

Weird tempo run, overall it was right 17k at 4:51/k AP, that is my current dream MP, but the whole run was just crazy I started uphill for the first 4k and my time went from 5:50 to 5:11. Then for the next 6k on a flat/slightly downhill terrain I maintained 4:10/k, then under the moonlight I finished the last 7k on a rolling terrain trying to cool down at 5:00/k with the last km at 4:30/k.

I was really impressed by my 4:10/k during the central 6k and overally because after those fast kms I was not dead and my legs were still able to respond. Next time I have to try to do a more even job on a flat terrain. 

Slow run around my house, it is the end of the summer season, for the next six months no more runs around the lake during the week days, just darkness, cold weather and rain. I am really excited.

Good recovery run 10k in 1 hour.

12k at slow pace, last 4.1k at MP. I am tired and hungry, a good dinner is in order.

Feeling tired, lond day at work, no will power to go running. I fell asleep at 8pm on the couch, woke at 10pm and moved my sorry body to the bed and good night.

Last year this week end I did a 36k at 4:47/k, today I started a 26k trying to finish at 5:00/k. Since the beginning I was able to stay well under 5:00, I finished the first 13k in 1:03:28 and did the second 13.2k in 1:01:48. Good things were the negative split, at the end I was tired but still able to maintain the pace, and overall I felt good throughout the whole run in spit being by myself. I was really dehydrated at the end because it was hot (I lost exactly 3kilos, that's too much), I have to remember to bring liquids for this kind of runs and I have to learn to appreciate what I can do right now instead keep going back at what I was able to do on the same course last year.

No run today.

This morning I did my annual visit with the sport medicine doctor to get the medical certificate to keep racing. During the cycle ergometer stress test I was stopped after 30" at 240 Watts (when I reached 90% of my max heart rate), last year after 1 minute, but luckily no major arrhytmias or other major anomalies. The ultrasonograph was still the same as in the previous years, so I received the OK from the doc for another year. I was really happy about, I have some minor heart problems that require some monitoring, and the fact that nothing has changed for the worse is still a very good news.

Tonight to celebrate the good news I did the first speed work out of the winter season.

5X800m with 400m recovery jog, these were my splits: 3:10, 2:57, 2:55, 2:57, 2:29. I was slow during the first one, my legs didn't want to go any faster then I got into a good rhytm. I wanted to do some more repeats but my legs were surprisingly sore from the heavy biking in the morning. Overall I did 6.6 miles at 4:58/km.

11k at slow pace then the last 6k at 4:40/k. Perfect night to run, light breeze and some moisture in the air.

Not enough time to run tonight, 5.2 miles in 42:28.

Slow easy run to pile up some mileage.

This morning I went to the hospital for the first session of the shock wave treatment, 10 seconds into the treatment the "gun" stopped working, I have to say I was glad, it was really painful and ready to cry, already after just 10 seconds. I was warned by the therapist but I didn't expect this level of pain. The "gun" didn't recover, a technician arrived but he couldn't do anything. Oh well, at least next time I will be prepared.

10k at night at slow pace, it was some kind of recovery run.

This morning I was tired and it was going to be warm again. I started with the goal of doing my 26.1k at 5:00/k or under or whatever was coming out of my legs. First kms were slow above 5:00 and it took like 11k to reach the 5:00/k guy. This morning I decided to use a more real approach and instead doing an easier (flat) route I extended my loop to include 2 big rollers (on top of the 2 I usually do) over 2k to make things a little bit more challenging. I have to say that in that respect everything went well I hit them right after I was on 5:00/k pace and I felt almost liberated and from the point back to the car I really pushed the pace well under 5:00/k. I did the first half in 1:04:50 second half in 1:02:10. Overall a good run, a couple of minutes slower than last week but at the end much more relaxed and in good spirit, if it wasn't for the heat (I was really dehydrated) I would have kept going for anothe couple of miles.

I used this race just to force my body to go running today. I woke up at 7:00am, I was ready by 7:45, I went to pick up a friend of mine and we drove for one hour to the archeological site of Vulci. This race had an advertised distance of 11.1k but considering that was in a archeological park with stairs, single track trails, roman-etruscan ancient roads, rocks and roots we seriously doubted that it was accurately measured. For some pictures go there and check the section in the middle saying "visualizza le foto del percorso"(it's not me in the pictures). Nobody knew the exact course because every year they keep changing it, but it was clear that there was a good amount of uphill and obstacles (natural and man made).

We started on time in a big meadow, my plan was to start slowly to try to find some energy and then trying to go progressively faster. We circled the meadow and then we entered the park on a wide trail that was a single track after 200m, then for the next 2k we had 4 sections of stairs going up then down and I was forced, as the rest of the group to just wait and walk them, we crossed a couple of narrow bridges, we ran along a river and after about 1k on a roman pavement we went back to the start. First loop of 4k was done (my Garmin was in agreement). At this point I was feeling good and decided I was going to push the second half, this second loop was more runnable, more stairs but just three or four of them at a time, more long uphills on roman pavement and one short steep down hill to finish with four stairs down, a bridge, four stairs up and then 100m before the finish line. My Garmin recorded 10.85k.

I was 6th in my age group and I won a kilo of cheese, just missed some salami awarded to the 5th!!!

Overall I was very happy, I didn't expect to go so fast, time doesn't say the whole story, I went faster than guys that a month ago were two minutes faster than me, several of them. I passed during the second loop many faster people and my final ranking would have been a great one if I was in good shape and well rested. At least my increased mileage shows is giving some results. Drove home, had a good sunday lunch and did some cleaning during the afternoon, I was tempted to go for a short cool down run but I decided against it.

Tomorrow I will go back to pile up some miles.

I was at home at 8:00pm, one hour run to relax a little bit.

My plan was to go for a 10 miler, but after 5k I was really tired, not sore, just simply tired, all I wanted it was to go to bed as soon as possible. I finished 10k and went home.

No running today, I had at lunch time my first session of shock waves to treat my calcanear spur/plantar fascitis, 2500 painful hits on each foot. I have to say I am lucky person,  because I have never experienced in my whole life a pain worse than what I experienced today. The whole thing lasted no longer than 5-7 minutes with a few stops because the technician also was experiencing part of the treatment. I tried to mentally work out my pain, but it was a pure torture. At the end my whole body was in full contraction due to the pain and I was covered with sweat. Each session (total number will be 10) should be a little bit less painful than the previous one, for sure it will increase my pain treshold. At the end my feet were completely pain free, I don't remember last time I had this feeling, walking without being aware that my feet were in pain. It is recommended not to run on it the same day, Iwill do something light in between treatments.

In spite of feeling great right now, I am not really looking forward to the next treatment on friday.

At least if this will resolve the pain it will be worth it.

5.5 easy miles, my feet this morning were much better, the treatment seems to work.

Today second treatment with shock waves for my spurs/fasciitis. This morning I could stand and walk right away, almost pain free, for sure better than during the last 6 months. I would be happy to maintain this improvement.

Today the improved pain/stiffness showed its results even during the therapy, it was much more bearable than last time, last time I was in pain throughout the treatment, today I went through easily and I even tried to relax my feet and legs during the 2500 hits.

The doctor told me to try to stop running (biking will be OK) until next friday, at that point I will be half way with the treatment and I can start running again. I hope to keep improving or at least maintining what I got so far. No running for the next 7 days. Promised.

Third shockwave treatment for my PF/"hell"spurs. I have to confirm the previous great results, tonight I am feeling completely healed, for the last three mornings I was able to get up from the bed and walk around without limping. After months of stretching, NSAID, rest, ice and desperation, I am really hoping with the next seven treatments to consolidate these results. Next friday with five more treatments to go I will start running again and see what happens.

Fourth shockwave treatment. Pain in the morning it is gone..... this morning I was in the kitchen when I "remembered" that I should have pain in my feet.

Friday I will resume running and see if there is any change, I hope no.

Fifth shockwave treatment, it was the least painful one so far, it means things are going great.

Pain in the morning is gone on the right side , the left one has just a slight leftover soreness. I would be happy to stay this way.

First run in a week just four easy miles to see if there will be any change. I will do the next five treatments while running.

This morning my feet didn't feel different from yesterday, that is a good thing. I did an easy 10k, the real test it will be tomorrow when I will go longer and faster.

Today I did a real test of my feet and of my fitness.

I was running with a couple of friends this morning who wanted to do an 18k with the following plan: 5k warm up, 10k at 4:30/k, final 3 at 4:20/k. We started a little bit later at 9:30 am and it was warmer than I liked it, it is still incredibly warm to be mid october.

First 5k were at conversational pace at 5:18/k average pace, it was a good warm up, then we moved to the next level I was the only one at 4:30/k my two friends were a little bit more excited, after a hill we were all together again for 1k and then we spread out 50-100m apart until the end. I lost a few seconds in the middle when I fumbled my car keys but other than that I was focused on maintaining speed and good form. I did the 10k at 4:29/k average pace, the last 3k I went 4:18, 4:18, 4:12. While I could have easily maintained 4:30/k (instead of those 4:1X) for at least a couple of more kms, 4:15 is my current speed limit.

Once back to the car I drank some water, ate some candies and decided to jog a few more kms at whatever pace was left, I wanted to do 10-12k but 8 k was the distance left in my legs today. I did the final 8 at 5:34 AP. Overall 26k at 4:57/k.

Tomorrow morning I will know whether my feet can stand this kind of beating, at lunch time I will also have my sixth shockwave treatment.

Today it was somehow the day of truth and the day of decisions. This morning my PF was worse than the last five days but still much better than before I started the shockwave treatments. My legs were also tired from yesterday tempo/medium run. I signed up back in may for the Florence marathon on november 25th, but right now I don't think I will do it. I will post pone it to next year. My main problem right now is my fitness, yesterday I couldn't go past 16miles, plus I have never done a 20 miler in the last 6 months and I had only the month of september as a good training month. My goal for the marathon would have been an honest 3:30 but right now under good conditions I can probably do 8:00/mile for 20 mile and then I would die. My speed is there but the distance is not.

On top of that I don't want to rush trying to pile up as many miles as possible in a month and risking of making all the progresses with the PF gone and going back to where I was three weeks ago.

Today I had the sixth shockwave treatment at least the treatment itself is no longer painful and the post-treatment relief is still there. Tonight I did 8.1 miles in 1:15, not exactly fast, but without the stress of a marathon in a month I really enjoyed the perspective of rebuilding my aerobic base, slowly.

Speed workout 5X1600 with 400m recovery jog. I did this workout on my winter course that is a 750m loop half uphill, half downhill. These were my splits: 6:37, 6:27, 6:30, 6:35, 6:30. Except for the first mile I was consistent around a 6:30 effort, the deviation is related to the start on the uphill section or on the downhill part. 2.2k warm up and up to 16.1 k as a cool down. It was a good run.

Seveth shockwave treatment today, treatment is fine and in the morning the stiffness is almost gone. Tonight my legs were heavy, after 4 easy miles my legs were still heavy, I decided to pack and go home.

I started with a slow run, then I went progressively faster and finished at a good clip. It was nice because also the weather was good for running, it will change in a few days.

8th shockwave treatment, no more pain than usual, I am really looking forward to finishing this thing and see if I will maintain the improvement I achieved so far.

I wanted to run tonight but the heavy storm changed my plans, remained inside sweating on the bike trainer for one hour.

I started at 5:00/km and slowly accelerated until mile 10, it was windy and rainy, after 10 miles I was done, I didn't have any energy to battle the wind and the cold and finished an half marathon in 1:44. I was really lacking mental and physical energies at the end to keep fighting against mother nature.

One hour swimming to relax and to avoid the heavy rain. No my shoulders are really sore.

Today winter arrived, after two months of warmer than usual temperatures, this morning it was rainy and cold. Tonight with near freezing temperatures I had to wear long pants, a couple of T-shirts and gloves. Last year I used for the first time long pants around Christmas time, a big change this year.

Today I had my ninth shockwave treatment, the big change today was the operator, instead the usual woman physical therapist, today was a big guy and the difference, in terms of pain was evident, the treatment was evenly painful everywhere with the crux around the spur. I was totally numb afterwards, but later one I didn't notice any change, I can feel just a "leftover" dull feeling at the bottom of the feet but nothing else and I can walk normally in the morning.

  Tonight a progressive run from 6:00/k to 4:10/k, 13k in 1:10:01, with the last three k sub 5:00/k pace.

10x800 with 400 m recovery jog. I started with a 2 miles warmup and I really needed it because it was cold and breezy, these were my splits: 3:10, 3:03, 3:05, 3:03, 3:07, 3:09, 3:09, 3:14, 3:14 and 3:07. The second half was slower than the first half, but I did them all by feeling without checking my lap time and the effort it was more or less the same, I just battled the desire to give up right after the 3rd repeat. I need to work on the mental aspect of these workouts, after all I did a good job but my brain didn't cooperate at all. I have to re-learn to get used to this kind of mental/physical fatigue. Finished with 10 miles total in 1:19:04.

No run tonight it rained hard from 8am until 9pm when I went to bed, I got fully wet four times throughout of the day(with an umbrella), when I got home I didn't want to get wet one more time. Today last shockwave treatment, I am looking forward how it will go from today.

Because it is a holiday I took advantage of it to do a medium run, 26k in 1:18:07, nothing fast just some miles and time on feet I am still tired from tuesday fast workout.

13k in1:18:38, relaxing run, I am still in recovery mode.

Progressive run at MP, started at 5:40/k for the first 7k, 3k at 5:00/k, last 11.1k at 4:34/k. Overall an half marathon in 1:45:42.

This is the one of the few races around here where you can swear about the distance, it is a legit 10k and it is the only race with no monster hills, just a few rollers, for these reasons it is usually well attended at the end of the racing season. On top of that there are money prizes for the fastest teams (my team won today and it is going to win the whole local competition in a couple of races). Today it was a typical november morning with light rain, fog and somehow warmer temperatures and this greatly reduced the number of the runners.

I got there at 8:30, found my bib number and went back to the car where I left the umbrella and the rest of the clothes. During the 3k warmup the rain stopped, the organizers decided to take advantage of this break and to start the race as soon as possible a few minutes before 9:30. With my current level of fitness I thought finishing in 41 minutes it would be a reasonable goal. I started on pace, something that doesn't happen very often, but I soon realized that 4:06/k would be an ambitious plan, next 3k were slightly uphill on a unpaved/muddy road and I did 4:07, 4:18, 4:23/k, we turned around and headed for the finish line in 4:15/k. Second loop I felt strangely a little  better my legs were more cooperative and I kept the following splits: 4:11, 4:08, 4:27, 4:03, 3:58/k for a total time of 41:55.

I was slower than planned, this was the bad part. The good thing was the second half that was faster than the first and I thought I could have kept 4:10-4:15/k much longer, somehow after warming up during the first loop I couldn't switch gear until the very end. It was a good race and did another fast workout, now I have to keep training hard.

A good recovery run, first 9k were slow and easy, because I was feeling good I started a mini tempo at MP, finishing 7.1k at 4:34/k AP.

Another good run, I started with a 5k warmup at slow pace and then I started a tempo run at MP/HM pace. I did 11.1k at 4:25/k average pace (that is more on the HM side right now). First 5k were still easy while the last 6 were more work, but my pace went down from 4:30 average to 4:20 during the last 6k. I have to learn to maintain an even pace, but while repeating an 800m loop uphill/downhill it is really difficult to guess the final average time and for this reason because I am feeling good I try to push a little bit more on the uphill portion and trying to recover on the downhill. AP at the end was still 4.57/k that is a more reasonable MP.

Slow recovery run 5 miles in 44:06.

I had sore throat for the whole day, so tonight's run was kill the bug or kill myself type of run. Right now I can't feel my throat at all, after all the cold air and dry mouth, I am curious to see tomorrow morning how it will go.

17k in 1:30:53.

My theme of this running year is my consistent inconsistency. Friday morning I woke up really sick, I went to work, survived until 4pm came back home and dropped on the bed until monday morning. Just fever, cough, stuffy nose, sore throat, muscle aches and pains, general weakness. Yesterday I went to work and things started getting better, last night I had the first "relaxing" night in three days and today I am almost back to normal. Tonight I went for a short run to clear up the airways and move my legs. I hope I am done for this year. 

Quick run before going out for dinner. 5 miles in 36:36.

8X800 with 2min recovery jog. I started with 20 minutes warm up and then I started the workout. These were my splits: 2:52, 2:56, 2:58, 2:55, 3:01, 3:01, 3:07, 3:03 AP 2:59.

I took the first half a bit too aggressive and I paid later. To be honest the 3:07 was done on the loop with the hill done twice. The recovery was a little bit too short, after #4 I was no longer able to bring down my heart rate.

Seven easy miles.

HM started at 6:00/k finished at 4:00/k, it was fun and weird at the same time. The first 5k were around 6:00/k, the middle ones around 5:00/k and the last 5 around 4:00/k, at the end I felt mentally and physically exhausted. Final time was 1:46:44.

One hour swimming.

First 5k at slow pace then last 5k at HM pace 4:17 average pace.

Fast workout, the plan was 8X800 with 2 minutes recovery jog. Goal time was 3:00 or below as last thursday. Clearly I was wrong, I finished with 3:10 AP, really consistent, but really slow. My legs were still heavy and were not cooperating at all. I am glad I finished it. Next three days I will be out of town, so running will be more challenging.

Running in Sorrento is not easy, I took advantage of the hills early in the morning to avoid the traffic of the only flat road in downtown Sorrento.

Easy run to recover after three days in Sorrento. 

I did this race as a speed workout and to test where I am. It is not a flat 10k because it has 3 bumps and a long hill to be repeated twice and anything faster than 41:30 it would be a great result. At least I was rested after a week of almost no running. Weather was great cool and dry, and the blue sky was the right companion for a good run. I decided to keep a 4:03-4:07/k speed to see how long I could keep it, at least for the first loop. The first 5k were perfect in 20:13 after that I just needed another 21 minutes for the second half to finish faster than my goal pace. The hills during the second loop were a killer but once I was done with the big one, that was during km 6, I relaxed a bit and found a faster pace on the remaining three bumps. I don't know my official time I just hit the button of my garmin after the finish line and said 40:55. I am just happy to have finished under 41. More miles and more speed in training will help to go under 40 minutes.

Nice recovery run under an almost full moon, it was nice to venture with the moon light on some roads usually dark without public lights and to extend my half mile loop to a 2k loop.My left heel spur was sore after yesterday.

Third consecutive night without running, it's been raining for three days now, no major damage in my area, just water everywhere from the sky and on the ground. Third consecutive night biking inside. Tomorrow cold air will arrive pushing away the heavy rain.

After 4 miles of rain and wind I went home. It was enough.

I started again with a light rain but then the conditions improved and a pale sun came out. Finished 13.1 miles at MP in 1:45:42 5:02/k AP.

4 easy miles, it was a sunny, warm morning.

Speed workout. 8X800 with 2minutes recovery jog. It took me 5k to warm up and not feeling freezing and then I started. This time my pace never went above 3:10 and the AP at the end of the 8 repeats was 3:04 with the last four faster than the first 4. The total average pace for the run, including the warm up, was 4:46.

I am feeling confident that on a flat terrain I can do the same workout under 3:00.

Tonight was a little bit warmer than yesterday, 8 easy miles at 5:30/k. 

Cold night, near freezing temperatures with a strong breeze from the north. 6.2 miles in 55 minutes.

I wish it was a LT run but it was in reality a speed workout. I started with a 5k warm up and then I started a 5k continuous run at 4:10/k. I finished with 4:08 AP, so overall it was not bad, but it was a 10k effort, not an HM effort. 2k at the end to cool down. It was cold (below freezing) but the road was dry and I had no problems with traction.

After 4k and 2k of rain, meaning wet and cold, I packed up and went home. I did 30 minutes on the bike trainer and then had dinner. 

This morning we had sub freezing temperatures, but the sun was out and the sky was blue, as added bonus I had company. My running buddy wanted to do an easy 10 miler and I couldn't agree more. My legs were tired and heavy, two speed workout in a week are a lot for my old body. After he stopped I did 3.1 more miles at 5:00/k to finish an HM. I had heavy legs until the end.

Another cold day with a strong wind from the north, but the sun was out and skies were really clear.

I went running in the afternoon, I did a progression run starting at 6:00/k finishing at 4:00/k with the last 4k at HM pace. 

Speed workout night, 8X800 with 2m recovery jog.

Tonight it was hard since the beginning, my legs were still tired and the cold wind from the north didn't make things easier. I finished the workout (that in itself it was already an accomplishment) at 3:11 AP, covering at least 300m during the 2 minutes of recovery. It was slower than last week and the head wind on the uphill portion was a battle during each loop.

I am happy that the workout is done and it is monday, I will have a couple of days to recover and then thursday I will give my legs another shot of speed.

13k at easy pace, temperatures below freezing.

Not enough time and will power to run under the rain.

Strange speed workout, I wanted to do a fast 6k tempo run at an aggressive HM pace (approx 4:10/k). I started really comfortable at 4:06(hill), 4:06, 4:03(hill) for the first 3k, at that point I was confident I was able to push even more and finish the last 3k at 3:59, 4:08(hill), 3:55(half-hill). The average pace was just above 4:03 that would be right now a 10k pace but except for the last one when I was "racing" all out, I was well below the pain treshold of a 10k pace. I can't say either that was a HM pace and I tend to  believe that right now that was a fast HM pace, but sustainable only for a 15k. To add some confidence to my selfesteem this training (as the rest of my winter evening runs) was done on 1700m loop with a hill and a downhill and a 180 degrees turn where I was forced to stop turn around and restart. I am planning to extend this kind of run up to 10k in the next months and see if I can transform this pace/run in a HM training.

Relaxing run tonight, 6.2 miles in 58 minutes. Not sore from last night just tired.

I waited for 1 hour hoping that the rain would stop and I could go running, eventually went downstairs in the basement to ride my bike on the trainer for 1 hour. I wasted one good hour biking.

Speed workout, my usual 8X800 with 2minutes recovery jog. These were my splits:

 3:01, 3:01, 3:00, 3:03, 3:05, 3:02, 3:02, 3:01. 3:02 AP, final AP 4:52.

Tonight I was well rested, no wind and just perfect the temperature to run. I was really consistent, just during the two central 800 I lost some concentration, but I knew I had it in my legs. I have to learn to start with a precise goal time rather than a time bracket, for tonight my goal was to stay between 3:05-3:10, I was constantly ahead of my goal time but sometimes it easy to get lazy and give up, I have to learn to be focused on a specific time and fight for that until the end.

Christmas party at night with colleagues, no time to run. This will be the common theme for the rest of the week.

4 miles and then went to another dinner party before Christmas. One more to go next friday.

Speed workout night. The plan was to do a tempo run at goal HM pace for 7k, for me it would be a 4:00-4:10/k. That is really an aggressive pace but my last training runs at that pace and the repeats at 3:45/k, seem to suggest that is not an impossible goal.

I started with a 4k warm up at 6:00/k and then I moved to the higher pace. These were my splits: 4:05, 4:02, 4:06, 3:57, 4:11, 4:01, 4:04  (AP 4:03 +5"), the 4:11 was on the slowest K of the series, but effort wise it was a consistent pace across the board. It was an hard pace to maintain during the last two uphills, but otherwise it did feel sustainable for a few more Ks. I will try to get to 10k at this pace in the next few weeks. Final AP (including the warm up 4:56/k).

No time to run, Christmas dinner with the running team, the dinner was organized with the food and money prizes we won during the year (prosciutto, salami and cheese and a few thousand euros). 

I enojoyed the beautiful warm sunny day to go out and to an HM at relaxing pace. I finished 21.1k in 1:56:16 nothing fast just miles in.

HM at MP. 13.1 in 1:42:33. In two days I have completed a marathon in 3:38 something (combining both times), right now I would be happy to finish a marathon with that time.

I went to work this morning, but I was at home for lunch. At 2:30 I started my speed workout 10X800 with 2minutes recovery jog. For the first time in a while was on a flat terrain with natural light. I warmed up my legs with 4 slow kms then I started, these were my splits 3:01, 3:00, 2:59, 2:59, 3:00, 3:00, 3:02, 3:03, 2:59, 3:03 AP 3:01. I slowed down at the end, but overall I was really consistent. I had doubts I could finish them all, but I kept my brain entertained when he was about to give up and in this way I reached the end. After I was done I found a couple of friends running on the same road and I did a long slow cool down with them. A very good run.

Easy to get rid of the Christmas lunch.

Tempo run. My goal is to extend the "distance" of my tempo run to 6-7 miles, trying to keep the pace honest and reasonable as a tempo, without going into the 10k/anaerobic speed.

I started with a 4k warmup and then I started, these were my splits: 3:59, 4:02, 4:05, 3:56, 4:08, 3:58, 4:03, 4:03 AP 4:01 +6". I felt strong and in control until km 5 (it was my slowest one but it is the one with the worst course combination, there is a hill, no downhill and the 180° turn), km 6 and 7 were still good but I had to work, the last 1 I was really happy I was still running hard but fatigue was there. At the end I walked a couple of kms to relax and cool down.

I am really happy about this progression during the last month, especially about feeling really in control during the first 5 kms. I can see myself running during a training run a 10k in 40 minutes in the next couple of months, as a training run. Something I have done a couple of times in the past when I was in the greatest shape of my life (I thought back then). Last month I wasn't able to do that in a race. Perfect night to run.

Easy run under an almost full moon. The lights of my running route are gone for the second consecutive day, I hope someone will fix them otherwise it will hard to run there when the moon will be gone.

HM at MP in 1:49:39. The weather was perfect sunny blue sky, no one single cloud around and temperatures above freezing.

Fun run organized by the RD of the local trail races. We met at 9 am, each person brought some food and beverage to share at the end, and by 9:30 several small groups formed and started this unofficial race. It is a brutal course with a hill 300m higher than the parking lot to climb a couple of times on two different sides. The ground was frozen but the south side in the sun was gorgeous. Our group finished the "race" in about 1:30 we added 5 more km to enjoy more sun and wait for the other people.

9 miles in 1:49:39 not exactly fast but it was a lot of fun.

Short run before going to work, it was cold for our local standards (-4°C). 6.2 miles in 48:06.