our choices show what we truly are

I got back home from work earlier than usual, I had just one hour before going out again for some other stuff, so I made it to the lake in 5 minutes run 6.2 miles trying to stay relaxed and slow and still trying to finish in 50-55 minutes. I ended up finishing in 49:26, 5 minutes drive, shower, and now while I waiting to leave again I am typing this entry.

Tomorrow it will be another day, hopefully less stressfull.

Another good training run 10 miles in 1:10:03 (dream marathon pace). My goal was to finish it in 1:12 but I always end up pushing the second half and even though I am alone I am really racing against time toward the end. It is good to be able to do so at a pace that is not relaxing yet but sometimes it would be better to stick to the original plan in order to stay more relaxed at the end and to recover faster in the next few days. I will try to keep this kind of workout for the next couple of months while I am going to slowly increase my weekly mileage in order to see what kind of results it will generate in fall. Time to go to bed.

I didn't feel great, plus I realized tonight that the forth toe of my right foot is probably broken. Last week during a night trip to the kitchen (no lights) to get some water I hit with my right foot the corner of the sofa and I started screaming pretty bad, the day after the forth little guy was black and red and swollen, now is still swollen and there is a clear painful point. I doesn't affect my gait or my running but I am very careful in crowded places I don't want anybody coming close to my right foot or stepping on it. I digress...... going back to the beginning, I was not feeling great, legs were tired from yesterday and from long standing hours at work, I started my run with the goal of running for one hour, I ended up with 9 miles in 1:19:54, I am very pleased with the outcome and with the run itself.

Just a slow, short, spent run. No much energies available, my brain is already focused on tomorrow's night race. Time to go to bed.

This is a fun race, starts at 9pm and usually is held during a weekday. This race is "fun" because is a roller coaster, it goes up and down in the old medieval town of Viterbo, there are approx. 400 meters of flat terrain and it is also the only section with asphalt while the rest is cobblestone. The main "danger" is represented by pedestrian going to a restaurant, going home or walking around, in narrow streets while 300 runners are charging blind corner, 90 degrees turns at full speed. If you add that we run in poorly lit streets it makes the whole thing really challenging.

I wanted to do a good time improving my last two years time (32:50 and 31:28), but it was clear since the beginning from the second km it was not going to happen. Last year I was regaining speed after every corner or hill, tonight it didn't happen. These are my splits/km: 3:54,4:00,4:01,3:59 (end of the first lap),4:22,4:21, 4:11, 4:03. I didn't taper for this race and my training in the last month was "hard" for my standards with lots of fast runs, I have no many regrets because I know I am in much better shape than last year, I have to keep my training strong and slowly increasing my mileage, I will keep using these shorter races as a VOmax training runs.

I went to bed at 1 am last night, I couldn't fall asleep right away too much adrenaline still around.I will take a day off, while I am going to take care of the lawn and I am going to plant outside tomatoes, eggplants, cucumbers and cantaloupe plants. Spring is here to stay.