So tired...

I can't get up the motivation to blog right now. My streak of 40 mile weekends is taking a major toll on my motivation and my ambition to express my creativity in this form. At this point all I can really offer is the overwhelming joy that I feel every day that I get out the door to train.

I love my life,

Mark

What the blog...

I guess with the wonderful spring weather keeping me outdoors longer and longer my neglect of the blog is understandable. Even now as I sit here my mind wanders to the roads and trails of Keene.

Last week was a rather ho hum week of training. My energy level had been waning over the past three weeks and I was starting to get mildly concerned. I have an appointment for a physical to get my blood levels checked but my country doctor can't see me until April break. I decided that my best option was to make a preemptive strike on the situation so I started taking a daily iron supplement. We shall see how this pans out over the next few weeks.

Saturday I was ambling along on a quaint twenty miler around west Keene and I had a major epiphany. As of last week there are more weeks to the marathon than we have had weeks in the current year!

Speaking of the twenty miler it was a fantastic celebration run and a triumph of spirit. A year ago on the dot was

last true training run before my stress fracture in my sacrum. It was nice to be able to clip along between 6:30 and

6:40 pace without a care in the world for over two hours. Life is good!

Heading into this week I am going to try and keep things simple. I am going to try and stay as stress free as

possible heading into New Bedford.

RISE!

Mark

What a weekend...

Far to worn out to muse at length about running and my current state of being. All I can offer is that I had one of the best weekends of the year chock full of massive amounts of training. I managed twenty miles each day and an incredible mountain bike ride Sunday afternoon. The amazing feelings that I had on my ride were priceless and I found myself puzzled at why I let this great passion creep in the shadows for so long.

Carpe Diem,

Mark

Wednesday workout 16 x 400...

Following Sunday and the ensuing funk of the past couple of days I was looking for a solid workout to rid myself of the malaise of my phantom side stitch. The usual suspects sans Kaizer Soze met at the bank at 3:15 and headed out on time for the first time in recent memory. Once we got to baker street Justin, Andy and I discussed the particulars of the plan. We planned to do 16 x 400 at 67 to 70 second pace with one minute of rest. We decided to split the workout into two sets of 8 x 400 with and extra 200 rest in the middle of the workout.

Overall the workout was just what I needed to snap out of Sunday. Every 400 was between 67 and 70 depending on the wind and the direction we were running. I felt like a brand new million dollar bill with the exception of some soft tissue pain in my left calf. What was most surprising was how quickly the workout passed. Looking back a few hours later I was very proud of our ability to hold back. Without question Saturdays planned 16 mile tempo is already bouncing around in the dark recesses of our subconscious.

In a rare occurrence the whole crew finished their workouts in unison and we were changed off on a four mile cool down within a few minutes. Following some stretching and a quick shower we were off to Armadillo's for burritos and refreshing beverages. I bounced out a little earlier than usual and headed home for the night.

Mark

DH Jones 10 Miler...

There really is not much to say following the DH Jones 10 miler yesterday in Amherst. I was having a great morning heading into the race with a solid warm up and exceedingly high confidence. The early miles of the race were fantastic and the course seemed much easier than last year. As we crested the challenging early hills I could not have been more pleased with my position and how I was feeling. As Justin, Brendan and I approached the five mile mark my right oblique grabbed and a serious stitch set in. I figured that it would pass and was confident that I would be able to close the gap up to Justin, and Brendan. Unfortunately my stitch only worsened over the final three miles. Despite my best and most creative efforts to ease my suffering the tightness continued. Around seven miles I started to hear the very distressing sound of Patrick Moulton's foot strike approaching. In my current state the last thing I needed was a 2:15 marathoner trying to drop me for three miles. Around the eight mile mark Pat put a quick few seconds on me and reality started to set in. I was now poised to run slower for a worse place than last year despite being in superior shape. As Pat and I approached the last hills I figured that my best attempt to salvage the race would be an all out attack on the hills. Despite incredible pain in my flank I managed to put some serious time into Pat on the climb. Even with my big move Justin and Brendan did not get any closer and they were crossing the line as I made my way into the final parking lot. Once in the chute I had a short bout of dry heaving followed by some more serious cramping but after ten minutes of chatting I was ready to cool down.

I was beyond excited for Justin's race. Once I was clear of Pat and knew I was out of the hunt I was in full fan mode for Justin. All of our hard work in clearly paying off and our marathon training seems to be on track. Even more surprising was Greg's 54:09 clocking! Greg has had such a breakout winter and is set to do some great things this spring. With our success and Pete Najam's USATF 800 it has become clear that the Keene training group is clearly one of the best groups in New England!