A Balmy 31

It's been a pretty rough weather week, but fortunately I've been able to get the runs and workouts in without any concessions being made. Last Sunday, Elkan and I got in a excellent 13 miler around the River. The first five or six miles were pretty brutal with a strong wind in our face heading out to Falls Bridge. Once we hit the Bridge though, and came back on West River Dr. the wind that we had cursed minutes before was now our best friend. The last six miles were down under 6:20, with a couple closer to 6. For the distance we were around 85 minutes, solid work.

On Tuesday, with the latest impending snow apocalypse on Philly's doorstep, I got in a good Fartlek on West River Dr. I ended up doing 5 800's, a 1200, and about a 500 with a quarter jog between each. The 1200 was supposed to be an 800, but with limited light on the path and faded away mile marks I ended up missing it. No worries, just extra work. The intended 400 to end the workout became roughly a 500 because of another obscured mile mark. We are just fortunate to have a path that the city keeps in great shape, and clears almost immediately after it snows. Don't let that service be one of your cuts Mayor Nutter!

After a painless 45 minutes for 7 on the dreadmill(better name for the treadmill) on Wednesday, the day after the aforementioned snow Armageddon(5 inches i think is all we got), I had an early morning run with Elkan on Thursday. The windchill was a solid 8, and the wind was as annoying as Sarah Palin, but we got the 8 miles in. I had a tough time feeling the left side of my face for the rest of the day, but one could argue it improved my looks. Yesterday after work Elkan and I went out for a tempo on West River. After several striders and some drills, and a look back into Center City by Andy to check out the temperature on one of the skyscrapers(31 balmy degrees), we set off. Andy planned on a 4 miler, and I was slated for 4.5 miles. After a controlled 5:35 opening mile, we moved past the 2 mile mark(literally, we went about 10 seconds past the mark), and turned back for home. The second mile was 5:35 again, and felt manageable. The third mile slowed to a 5:47, but we lost a couple seconds because of the issue of finding the 2 mile mark(that's my excuse for the slow down and I'm sticking to it), and we continued into the 4th mile moving along well. The 4th mile was 5:38 and Elkan finished his 4 at 22:36 while I closed out with a 2:48 the last 800 for 25:25 for the 4.5 miler. The average for the tempo was 5:39, coming down from 5:43 for 4 last week, and 5:47 for 3.5 two weeks ago. Slow but steady progress. My heart rate was 168 right after finishing, so I stayed in the optimal high 80%-90% range which shows me I wasn't dogging it, but also wasn't red lining by any means.

I decided this week that I was going to run the Mardi Gras Half Marathon on Feb. 13 in New Orleans. It will be a good mid-winter break from the awesome weather here in Philly, and it will provide a racing opportunity to break up the training a bit. I am excited to catch up with my friend Kevin Thompson who moved down to the Big Easy this fall, and was(and will be this spring again) the Sprint Coach extraordinaire at Cornell. I am also hoping to see my Uncle John and Aunt Heidi who are talking about driving in from Houston for the race. In other racing news, the Broad St. 10 miler registration opens up today, and they are anticipating that the 30,000 runner cap could fill up in 1 day. It's unbelievable how big this race has gotten, the first time I ran it in 2001 there were around 7,000 runners! Our track club, Breakneck, will be entering a team for the race and three of the five members will be related. Breton is going to run(and hopefully score for us, yeah I'm calling you out punk), and my cousin Aaron is going to also lace them up. Aaron is making a very nice comeback now, and with 31:04 10k credentials he has a chance to really make some noise in the longer distances. Keep up the great work man.

On a completely unrelated note, I just wanted to express my relief that my friend Steve from Rutgers Law is alive and well. Steve owns a house in Tuscon that happens to be a block from where the shootings occurred last Saturday. He happened to be at the supermarket 30 minutes before the tragedy happened, and saw them setting up for the rally. Needless to say, none of us ever fully know what's around the corner for us in life. Just another reminder of why we need to get it done today, and not wait for things to happen to us.

Eric

She walks these hills, in a long black veil.
When the cold winds blow, and the night winds wail.
No body knows, no body sees.
No body knows, but me.
Johnny Cash- The Long Black Veil