Friday, April 18, 2014

Half Way House

I'll probably need one of those someday. A half way house for OCD, running addiction therapy, and other maladies. Great.

Making some transitions this month, and maybe then some. Perhaps more on that later.

Into my third week of running following a long--somewhat rewarding but not always wonderful ski season--and it's coming back although I feel awkward plodding along at 56 years old. With so much ice and snow out there still, I'm running outdoors most days but workouts are on the treadmill. Seem to be in reasonable early season shape and can hold threshold reps in the low 6 min/mile range and I felt relatively good doing a series of 1 min reps in the 5:40s range the other day. Nevertheless, the transformation invariably takes six to eight weeks so I can't rush it. Also mixing in some skiing to avoid to many miles too soon.

What's best is that I now have a season plan, actually for the entire year. It may or may not include a marathon. It might be more of a year for 10K and under, although with some longer stuff mixed in.

May is the usual kickoff, Chena River Run. It's always the most competitive race of the entire year--I never get close to top 10 anymore with up to a dozen runners going under 17 minutes--but the course is slow and it's just too early in the season for me to feel like I can roll. So it's usually 17:30s to 17:50s for that one and wait for faster at later date.

After that later in May is the Trent/Waldron Glacier half marathon in Anchorage. That's a good one all on bike paths. The race has a few quirks, but it's low key, the course is good, and they even have age graded rankings. I don't think any other race in the state does that.

The June schedule includes the Midnight Sun Run and the Jim Loftus Mile. I wish they'd space these a little bit further apart, and put the mile on the following Saturday after MSR, instead of Thursday. But it is what it is. This year in honor of the late Jim Loftus, a friend and excellent masters runner, I would like see how close to 5:00 I can get. Loftus who ran the 800 in 2:12 at 55 or so, also ran a 5:00 at 50.

July is wide open. August I'm going to break away from the pattern and either do the Alaska Championship 10K in Anchorage on the first weekend to go for a sub 36, or possibly the Big Wildlife (Formerly Humpy's) marathon a couple weeks later. This all depends on scheduling with high school cross country and all, in addition to June and July training.

The big one though is that I want to do USATF Club Nationals in December. That's a long wait, and far away (Pennsylvania this year). But XC is the best, although it might not be my best event. To keep things going (and if I don't do a marathon in Anchorage) I might do Equinox. Although, maybe not and just focus on training and XC. Obviously late summer is a little bit more open ended.

Anyway, looking forward to it and to seeing people out on the roads, trails, and track.




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