Why not

Should I try my hand at blogging?  I suppose I wouldn't know until I tried it, so here I am trying it.

The background photo is a shot of Coop that appeared in the Denver Post a couple of years ago, actually, more like 5 years ago now.  It was a 5k at Sloan's Lake, and we ran portions of it.  I love the pic.  He enjoyed himself so much that day, as did I.  Here is a little video clip:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXdhm9hIpJc

So, I'm not really sure what this blog will be all about or where it might go, but I think I can it least update it more often than Richard and Ryan.  A modest goal.

To start, this will mostly document my training for Boston this spring.  My first sub 3 at age 41 is the goal.  My 1:23:50 half from Denver RnR this past falls predicts well for that goal at sea level, but the work must still be done to get me there.  The Newton hills must still be conquered with juice left for the last 5 miles, and my self-image as a weak hill runner must be overcome.  And I'd like to toe the line at 165 lbs (right around 169 today).

My training plan, well, it is a work in progress.  The framework is 3 quality runs per week:  one tempo, one interval, one long.  Mileage goal for the next 13 weeks....I'd like to average around 75.  Over the preceding 6 weeks where I tried to just run miles and miles with no real quality, I averaged 80 mpw with my first ever 90 and 100 mile weeks (103 to be exact, but who's counting).  Now my plan is to cut the miles back a bit and add in the quality.  Cutting the miles back should still leave me in the 70s and thus my highest mileage marathon training cycle ever.

The body feels pretty good right now.  Calves seem to get little pulls and strains every week or two, but it always goes away after a day or two of soreness.   I'm working the vibrams into the routine very slowly, right now I'm only up to 3 miles in them.  But I like the way they make me run.

First interval session of the cycle today at lunch.  Thinking 10 miles w/ 8 x 800 @ 6:00 pace w/ 400 jog recoveries.  Hopefully this isn't too taxing with that nice long rest period.