New Beginnings

So Maybe it's time to start jotting down some training musings again.

For the record, the Boston Marathon went well in April, fulfilling most of my hopes. No PR or anything, but requalifying for Boston and a definite Boston PR. 3:50:19. A bit of walking with bad stomach cramps after probably too little water with my gel just after Heartbreak Hill, but easily the best of my three attempts. I was in the top 25% of my age group, which given the competition at Boston, I'll take. It was really nice to have Chris to help me home from the finish.

So next up is the New York Marathon on November 7th. It's a lottery deal because of the number of applicants they usually get, but they accept some folks on times. It turns out that my 3:47 in Chicago last fall is fast enough to qualify me for New York, so that does that. Now comes more training with the new cycle starting this week.

Just to change things up a bit, help with core strength and hopefully ease my chronic work related back pain, I decided to enter a series of three "sprint" (read "short") triathlons in June, July and August. The first of these was last week and let's just say it will serve as a baseline. Of my age group of seven guys, I was 6th in the swim, 4th in the bike and 2nd in the run. Second in the run in a laughable 27+ minutes. Third overall.

Anyway, the plan is to put a little more time into swimming and biking workouts in the next couple of weeks and hopefully do better in the next one. Austin wants to build me a decent road bike to use in place of my mountain bike hybrid which he says will take five minutes off my bike time. Workin' on that.

Runningwise, I ran a PB 5K a couple of weeks ago at the USATF certified Plymouth YMCA race--22:06 and hope this means my speed overall is now back more to last summer levels after feeling slowed by last November's sprained ankle for many months. Mile splits were 7:25, 7:03 and 6:58. Once again, going out slow proved a successful strategy.

Summers are great in Michigan!