I decided to join back up with a running group that I ran with for a month last fall, Boulder Running Republic. The Coach is Darren De Reuck. He coaches his wife, Colleen who is an amazing runner (2nd at the USA Marathon Championships in Twin Cities earlier this month in 2:32 and 1st in the USA 20K Championships last month at the age of 45!!) He also coaches a recreational club, Boulder Striders and this smaller more elite group, the Running Republic. Darren has organized group workouts on Tuesdays and Saturdays.
This morning we met at 7:00 a.m. in Boulder. Aaron gave the kids breakfast and took them to the gym with him so I could go to Boulder. Then he dropped them off at our friend, Silvina's house afterwards so I could come home, take my shower, eat, and then clean the house.
We did a fartlek workout this morning.
20 minute warm up with 4 X 25 second strides
2 X 3 min @ 10K effort/90 sec easy - my pace was around 5:58 on these
4 X 30 sec quick turnover/60 sec easy - He had us count our strides, so each time my right foot hit was one stride, and mine were 53, 54, 53, 54 which was about 5:25 pace
2 X 5 min @ half marathon effort/2 min easy - my pace was 5:57 on the first and 5:47 on the second. I finally started to feel good and warmed up for these. The sun came out and I took my long sleve off after these repeats.
4 X 60 sec fast/60 sec easy - my pace was 5:13-5:30 ave
10 min cool down
Total time was 1:12:55, 9.47 miles with 7:41 ave pace
GREAT workout!
Darren and I also talked about a 6 month plan for me in racing. He reccomended that I focus on going for a half-marathon PR at the USA Half-Marathon Championships in Houston on January 17, 2010. Then go for a marathon PR in the elite section at Boston in April. He thinks Boston is a lot better for me than Grandmas because it is two months earlier and gives me better timing to recover and train for another fast fall marathon. There is a more competitive field at Boston, but the prize money isn't neccessarily better unless I really think I can run sub 2:35...which I'm not sure is within reach for me yet. I do agree that the timing is probably better if I want to go for another marathon in the fall though. And I do like the idea of seeing Boston since I've never been there.
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