A Long Winter, a Long Interval Away

First, I have an absence to explain. Well, my new work has a ‘new’ internet policy. And it’s a little fuzzy whether posting falls under the ‘acceptable internet use’ definition. And of course, our new policy is followed with an ‘observation period.’ So, they were tracking everyone’s internet breadcrumb trail, causing me to go incognito.

Also, with my new job, I’m on the road quite a bit more, while working approximately the same number of hours. The major difference being I’m away from home during the weekdays, quite infrequently having to work on the weekends. While prior I got home about the same time every weekday and put in some hours on the weekend. Why does this matter? Simple, it means that instead of going to workout at 5:30p on weekdays, and having to work a few hours on Sat/Sun (nothing better than working for five hours after a long run), I’m away from home until 8p at night—thereby making consistent weekday workouts very difficult—especially in winter. However, I have an abundance of free time on the weekends, where I only have one run to fit in.

But, alas, the ‘observation period’ has come and gone and I’ll be free to post and comment again. I trust all of you will be magnanimous towards me, and I thank you in advance.

Annnndddd, with all of that perfunctory stuff out of the way, I’ll give you a brief update concerning my training for Boston.

It sucks.

Yep, sucks big time.

Why? I’ve been missing weekday workouts. My long runs are significantly slower than training for Chicago. I’ve borrowed Nitmos’ Cheeto layer, and I can’t seem to give it back. Plus, the weather has been frightful. Clean sidewalks for running—nope. Cold and slippery conditions—yep. Nothing above freezing for a month—yep.

As a for instance. On Saturday I ran 22M. I selected the hilliest route possible for this area, an 11M out and back. The route has several hills and one large slow incline of well over 100 feet. That series of hills is about as close as I can fake it for the “Newton Hills” and its famous peak “Heartbreak Hill.” But it was 21 degrees, and a 15-20mph headwind. So, I had the fight of my life for a 7:54/M average.

But I’ve run long enough is MI to know this: when it comes to January and February, sometimes it is just enough to run the miles hard. When I look back at my training for Bayshore this time last year, my times and speeds are not that different. Everything speed related rests on going hard (but slow) these two months with the hope that speed will bloom in early spring.

Tomorrow I’ll drop my Super Bowl 5K recap, which I ran yesterday.