our choices show what we truly are

It was a perfect race, I wanted to accomplish two goals, finishing under 1:27 and finishing among the top 1000 finishers (with 1:27 I would be placed historically around position 1000). From my last race a month ago, I knew both goals were achievable but the execution is the devil. Three of us left our town at 7 am and we drove to Rome. We got to the starting area at 7:45, used the facilities at the local McDonald chapter,and then went to the start to drop the bags. This race is the unofficial italian championship of half marathon and about 10000 people were there. Without warming up at all we entered our corral at 8:45 and we waited 9:15 when the race started on time. Temperatures at home were around freezing while in Rome around 5°C, but clear skies were telling us we would finish the race with a perfect spring temperatures, most importantly no wind. My goal was to keep the pace around 4:05-4:10 but more on the 05 side. This race has a roller altitude profile for the first half and the a short downhill and flat finish at the end. I knew I had to preserve my legs and lungs for the fast finish but I didn't want to loose to many seconds on the three hills during the first 10k. First 5k was 20:30, almost perfect, the 5 seconds delay was due to the congestion during the first 1k. The second 5k considering the 2 hills was almost as good 20:38 and the third 5k with the last hill and the only downhill part was almost the same 20:39. During the last 6.1k I gave it all I had in the tank, smelling and seeing the sea after 20k of running on a straight freeway, even though my calves started seizing I finished strong with 24:50. Final time was 1:26:38. I am really happy right now, this was one of the biggest goal races for the year and being able to post a new PR here it is really encouraging for the upcoming months. More training is coming with the goal of lowering my half time again.

Very easy miles to relax my legs and enjoy the warm weather at night.

Easy recovery miles, legs are almost back to normal, no pain, just general fatigue.

No run today, too much rain outside, inside was warmer and cozy.... :)

8k at easy pace then 10X100m strides with 100m jog. It was nice to feel some speed again, my legs responded quite well and I was tempted to keep going during the last 500m, but I decided to stay with my original plan and finish nice and recovered. "Almost" back to normal, most of the fatigue from the race is "almost" gone.

Another easy run, tomorrow I will attempt something longer and faster to check my recovery. Legs and breathing were fine tonight.

Today I tested my legs over a medium slow run, I finished 16 miles feeling ok. I went out really slow for the first 21k with the goal of just finishing them, then I finished the last 5k at 4:30/k. It was nice running in the morning with some warm spring weather (sun, clouds, wind, a little bit of rain and then more sun).

Easy run with friends to enjoy a windy sunday morning together.

I went out with the intention to test my legs with something faster. I started slow as a warm up and then I went progressively faster down to HM pace, given the slow start and the slow progression with the last 3 miles at HM pace I thought it would be easier but it was not. Clearly my legs are not recovered yet, I did what I wanted to do but never felt "easy". I am probably one of the few people around here looking forward to daylight saving time, in Italy it will be in a couple of weeks, it will officially open the summer season with the possibility to have all my evening runs with some light.

Heavy rain outside, I decided to stay dry inside. Next sunday I will jog the Rome marathon so a little taper will help to finish in one piece. The funny thing about this year edition is the uncertainty about the course, given the pope election, apparently there are several variants depending on what kind of ceremony there will be in St Peter's square on sunday morning. There is also a chance the race could start in the afternoon. It will be fun to see what will happen. In the meantime some recovery time is good.

Rest day

Final easy run, before the race.

I went to the expo to pick up the bib number I don't feel too excited about this year marathon, mostly because I will try to do it as a long run without doing too much damage to my legs.

To force myself to rest I went to work for most of the day. I had some work done and I am well rested.

I entered this race back in october to take advantage of the lowest price, then during the winter months I decided to concentrate more on speed and to use the Rome marathon as a motivational run to start a new marathon training cycle. Two weeks ago I had a great experience with a fast half marathon, so I didn't have any expectations from this race beside trying to have a good time.

The course this year changed a little bit to avoid Saint Peter square that is a red zone until next tuesday, but the rest of the course was the same and the whole organization did an incredible job to convince the city to maintain the date and the time in spite of the uncertainties related to the new pope election.

I woke up at 6:00 am, at 6:45 with a couple of friends we were driving to Rome. We left the car near a subway station and with the train reached the starting area. Everything went smoothly and at 9:00 we lined up in our corral. I had as a real goal to finish uninjured and trying to stay under 4:00. As soon as we started I tried to stay above 5:00/k and for the first 10k it was really hard to do that, I was full of energy and 4:50/k was somehow my cruising speed. I had to be careful, in the last year I never went above 16 miles, so if I wasn't careful I would pay for it later in the race. I was caught around half way by the 3:45 pacers and I decided to join them, I was feeling good but I was uncomfortable to reach the unknown zone above 20 miles. Then at 20 miles I realized I was still feeling good, I said goodbye to the 3:45 pacers, and tried hard to finish in 3:40. I was moving faster than anybody around for the next 5k, then during the last 5k we were in Rome downtown with narrow streets ups and downs, left and right, and my pace was not so fast anymore and closer to 5:10/k. I was really happy to be able to finish in 3:41. In the afternoon after keeping my feet for 20 minutes in cold water I felt regenerated, my quadriceps were tired but no pain. No problem at all going down the stairs. Overall I enjoyed this race, without racing it. The weather was on the cool side with a cold wind from the north, but overall the conditions were perfect. I am really looking forward to start training hard again.

No run today, my legs are good to go, no problems with the stairs. I am just feeling tired mostly from lack of some good quality sleep.

Easy run with a light breeze.

Rest day. Another rainy and cold night.

I wanted to do a speed workout just to shake my legs. The plan was easy: 6X400 w/200 recovery jog. I did it on a 450m one lane flatish road that is slightly uphill going out against the wind, slightly downhill coming back with a tail wind. These were my splits: 95, 84, 92, 82, 86, 84.

During the first one I had to re-learn to move fast my legs then the next five were easier (during the third one I had to slow down because a car was coming and I had to keep running on the shoulder). I was happy to be back to my regular training schedule.

Easy run, a 10k in 58 minutes.

Progression run, I started easy and then finished strong with the last 3k at HM pace. Overall 13.1 in 1:48. 

Easy relaxing run, during the last 2k some 100m/200m strides with the same distance to recover. I am feeling great. One more week and then with the DST the summer training will start (I am one of the few people on the blog looking forward to having more light during the evening for my runs).

Mini tempo run. Warm up for 4.5k then I started having as a goal to maintain 3:55/k for 5k.

These were my splits 3:50, 3:52, 3:55, 3:56, 4:01 for 19:34. The first 3k were under control the last two were much harder. My tempo time is more realistically around 4:00/k, I went a little bit faster on this one trading distance (less distance) for time. I did a slow cool down for 1k and then went home for a nice dinner. I won't complain much about the weather (5°C) because in most of the US or even in northern Italy there is snow on the ground, but I am really tired of running in the dark at night with coldish weather.

Easy run, 7 miles just to keep my legs moving.

Four easy miles around the industrial area.

Repeats night. I want to start doing two fast workout per week again without killing myself in the process. Each week I will try to increase the length or the intensity of each workout, up to a certain point, to keep an healthy training stimulus.

My plan for tonight was to do a 5X800 w/ 400m jog. This will be my last fast workout of the winter season, next week with the DST and more natural light during the evening I will move to the lake area that has some flat sections and I can add more variety to my VO2max routine. I did pretty well in spite of the wind with the following splits: 2:56, 2:52, 2:55, 2:49, 2:57. The time up and down is due to the loop I did all winter long I hope to be more consistent once I will do them on a flat terrain.  

I got home earlier than usual so I went running at 6pm around the lake. I wanted to see how long I could run before it would be dark. Considering that there was a thick cloud cover I was safe to run until 7:10 after then it was really dark. From tuesday with the DST this will be my new schedule, starting at 7:00 pm I will have for the first week a good hour and then everyday it will be longer and longer. Tonight I was really relieved to be done with the same loop over and over in the industrial area, I started at slow pace and then I went progressively faster, I finished 12k in exactly 1:00. My plan was a recovery run easy and slow, but I got carried away and finished really strong.

I woke up at 7am with a thick fog/cloud cover, heavy rain and wind (anything else?), I quickly realized I don't have any big race until september so why going out just to enjoy some misery? 45 minutes later all of a sudden I found myself on the road around the lake 1k from my car completely wet head to toe and cold, with barely 100m view all around (the fog was just crazy). I got 11k from my car and I was completely frozen, the wind and the rain extracted all the heat from my body. I turned around and finished 13.1 miles in 2:00:34, talking about a speed workout. I was also stopped twice by two different cars looking for directions, just because I was the only human being around. The second car felt obliged to ask me if I needed something: a ride, some water or food, I declined with a smile and after an happy easter we went our ways.

I took a hot bath to bring back my core temperature and to stop shivering, I am just proud of what I did, even though I don't know how I convinced myself to do this.