our choices show what we truly are

Tue, Sep 24, 2013

Tue, 24 Sep 2013 06:00:00

I started this month with great plans, right now it is going to be a blah month. I have just passed a stressfull deadline, a few more things to do by the end of this week and then I can resume a more normal schedule next week. Tonight I did a tempo run 5k in 20:01, I didn't have the mental energy to keep pushing past the 5k mark.

Mon, Sep 23, 2013

Mon, 23 Sep 2013 06:00:00

Sun, Sep 22, 2013

Sun, 22 Sep 2013 06:00:00

Sat, Sep 21, 2013

Sat, 21 Sep 2013 06:00:00

Fri, Sep 20, 2013

Fri, 20 Sep 2013 06:00:00

Easy miles

Thu, Sep 19, 2013

Thu, 19 Sep 2013 06:00:00

Fast workout night, 5X800 with 2:30 recovery jog.

I wanted to start on the faster side and see if and how long I would be able to keep it up. These were my splits 2:53, 2:53, 2:55, 2:58, 2:58. By the time I reached the fourth interval I was really working to maintain the same pace, I am just glad I stayed under the 3:00 mark for all five intervals.

Wed, Sep 18, 2013

Wed, 18 Sep 2013 06:00:00

Easy miles.

Tue, Sep 17, 2013

Tue, 17 Sep 2013 06:00:00

Easy miles to restart running after a rest day. I moved to the winter training area, boring as hell, but at least is well lit with wide roads and no traffic.

Mon, Sep 16, 2013

Mon, 16 Sep 2013 06:00:00

Rest day.

Sun, Sep 15, 2013

Sun, 15 Sep 2013 06:00:00

Easy miles on a warm beautiful morning.

Sat, Sep 14, 2013

Sat, 14 Sep 2013 06:00:00

Easy half just to keep my mileage above 50/week. With one tempo run and one fast workout per week it is hard to stay above 50 miles. I am just hoping to maintain this rhythm for the next couple of months.

Fri, Sep 13, 2013

Fri, 13 Sep 2013 06:00:00

Easy recovery miles, nothing special about it.

Thu, Sep 12, 2013

Thu, 12 Sep 2013 06:00:00

Fast workout night, I was feeling recovered from tuesday run, but I had doubts. My plan was 10X400 with 200m recovery jog. My plan was to do a progression to see how things would go, I was definitively feeling better as I was progressing and I was completely in control until the end. These were my splits: 87, 88, 85, 84, 84, 85, 83, 84, 83, 80. During the last one I opened up the gas to see what I could do. The average pace is 84.3, that is a couple of seconds slower than last time but I was really in control and pushing the pace without struggling. I never felt so relaxed at the end of a 10x400, it is time to push the pace a little bit.

Wed, Sep 11, 2013

Wed, 11 Sep 2013 06:00:00

Easy miles but I was not tired from last night run, this is a good sign. The real check will be tomorrow night when I will attempt a 10X400. One of the last few runs with some residual natural light until 7:45pm, next week I will retreat to the winter running area, the industrial zone, with a 1.6k loop with wide roads and well lit and boring like hell.

Tue, Sep 10, 2013

Tue, 10 Sep 2013 06:00:00

Tempo run night, after a 3k warm up I started, my goal was a 10k in 40 minutes. Everything went smoothly until km 7 when I had to stop for a bathroom break. Restarted for the last 3k and finished in 40:13. Without the stop it would have been an almost perfect run. When I was driving home started raining really hard I got lucky tonight.

Mon, Sep 09, 2013

Mon, 09 Sep 2013 06:00:00

Another easy run, I was really tired tonight after a long day, finishing 7 miles was already a significant goal.

Sun, Sep 08, 2013

Sun, 08 Sep 2013 06:00:00

Easy recovery miles, it is still hot, hopefully the last day.

Sat, Sep 07, 2013

Sat, 07 Sep 2013 06:00:00

Longish run, with 2k warm up at 6:00/k then the whole HM course around Lake Vico in 1:36 and change, 3k cool down for a total time of 2:04:47. I would be happy just the final 4:47/k AP, but the HM with lots of rolling hills in 1:36 it is a real strong MP training run. In a week two good races, lots of good miles and two long days at work, overall everything was perfect.

Fri, Sep 06, 2013

Fri, 06 Sep 2013 06:00:00

Easy recovery miles, I was more tired from the lack of sleep than from the race itself.

Thu, Sep 05, 2013

Thu, 05 Sep 2013 06:00:00

I decided to do this race because last year the first edition was very well organized, it is short and relatively fast considering our usual races around here, and I actually like the idea of doing 4 laps with some pretty decent crowd support.
I went to Barbarano at 7pm I got my bib and then I did an easy 5k as a warm up. The race was supposed to start at 8:30 pm but the RD was still arguing with the local police because they did not receive the authorization to shut down the whole road for 10 minutes. You have to consider that this small town has 1000 people, half of them were on the street to watch the race, the town is in the middle of nowwhere and there is no traffic at that time going anywhere. This was a nonsense and everybody, from the local administrators to the runners were mad, many people proposed to run on the whole road anyway because there was no one around. The RD decided to cut the 1.65k loop to 1.1x and have the runners do 5 laps instead of 4. The first 350m were a mess because we were running in just one lane and it was a giant bottleneck, but quickly after the first left turn and the 30m long bump we were spread out enough. The loop was very smooth 350m slightly uphill, left turn, small bump up, left turn, long stretch slightly downhill half of them in the old part of the town on cobblestone, nice and smooth actually, two more left turns, slightly uphill going to the start/finish line. I wanted to finish under 3:50/k, for this reason I took off like crazy, to find some room and to settle in a do or die pace. I am not used to this kind of short fast races so the only way to gauge my effort was to pass the pain treshold and then keep going at that level. Running at night on cobblestone doesn't gives you the possibility to check your splits, your footing is more important, for this reason I really went by effort and not by time. I felt a little bit "lost" during the forth lap, kind of mentally tired, especially because at that point I had to lap several slower people and it was hard to keep moving left and right, while screaming "on your left" or "on your right", but I forced myself to keep pushing and I finished really strong during the final one. I finished per my Garmin with 5.59k in 21:11, I did the 5k in 19:01, 7th in my age group, 3:48/k AP. I was really happy about the outcome, in retrospective, if I maintained my concentration a little bit more during the forth lap I could have finished under 21. In spite of the original mess with the course the rest of the race was very well organized, with the dinner in the main plaza, it was hard afterwards falling asleep, with so much adrenaline still in my body, but it was a fun race.

Wed, Sep 04, 2013

Wed, 04 Sep 2013 06:00:00

Extra long hours at work, tonight I went for a short run just to breath some fresh air, relax my body and clear up my mind. Somehow it worked.

Tue, Sep 03, 2013

Tue, 03 Sep 2013 06:00:00

No run today, left very early in the morning back at night, I was really tired to even thinking about running.

Mon, Sep 02, 2013

Mon, 02 Sep 2013 06:00:00

Progression run from 5:00/k to 4:40/k. Considering my latest marathon performances it was a MP run. I was not fatigued by yesterday race.

Sun, Sep 01, 2013

Sun, 01 Sep 2013 06:00:00

Today I had a good reason to celebrate, 10 years ago on september 1st 2003 I decided to cross the line and started training for my first race, the Thanksgiving turkey run in City creek canyon. I was running during the winter and biking during the summer during the previous three years, but that day I decided to be a runner and use the bike as a crosstraining tool. At that time I was logging my miles on a paper calendar until january 1st 2005, when I made an Excel file, that I am still using, where I recorded all my mileage. At that time I thought it was very difficult to be consistent in my training during all 4 seasons, but surprisingly enough I am still here. Since 2005 I logged 17995 miles, I have done lots of races in US and in Italy, and I don't know if it's good or bad, but right now I am in the best running shape of my all life. I was blessed with a really good health with only two major injuries, the first one in 2005 when after Des news marathon I had a (stress) fracture of the second toe in my right foot, in about 2 months I was back on the road. The second injury was last year, with bilateral plantar fascitis/calcaneal spurs, this one never stopped my running but made my all life really uncomfortable. I have never lost my running motivation I had highs and lows but running was always my safe refuge where to go when life presented challenges. More miles and more races are in store for the future.

Today's race was a perfect way to celebrate.

This race is long 12.85k, but this year there was a major celebration on the main piazza so the organizers had to cut it short at about 12.5k. It is a fast 10k (flat with some small rollers) followed by a 2.5k steep climb in the old part of the town. My only plan was to go out hard, not all out and see if I could finish at 4:00/k without killing myself. I ended up not killing myself but 37 seconds too slow, the last climb during the last km killed my desire to stay on pace. I need some work before 4:00/k will be my HM pace.

PM 7 easy miles tonight to keep celebrating 10 years of running.

Sat, Aug 31, 2013

Sat, 31 Aug 2013 06:00:00

Easy miles just to have some blood flowing in my legs.

Fri, Aug 30, 2013

Fri, 30 Aug 2013 06:00:00

Easy miles around mount Venere with an old friend, it was nice to run with someone.

Thu, Aug 29, 2013

Thu, 29 Aug 2013 06:00:00

Another run before it was too dark to continue. Tonight I started really slow and then I finished fast, my goal was not to tax my legs too much and trying to relax. This should be my micro taper before sunday race.

Wed, Aug 28, 2013

Wed, 28 Aug 2013 06:00:00

Easy miles, I stopped at 7 miles because my right ankle was a little too sore.

Tue, Aug 27, 2013

Tue, 27 Aug 2013 06:00:00

Ten easy recovery miles until il was dark at around 8:30 pm, in about 10 days I will abandon my summer running ground to retreat to the same boring 1.1k loop in the industrial area in town. I am actually looking forward to that, last winter I built a solid training there managing to do 2 hard workouts per week.

Mon, Aug 26, 2013

Mon, 26 Aug 2013 06:00:00

Fast workout night, 10x400 with 200m recovery. I did this workout a few months ago averaging 80 seconds, I wanted to see if I was still there or (more probably) a little bit behind considering that a few weeks ago I did 84" and it was not easy. The first six repeats were on target 78, 81, 78, 80, 81, 82 then I was done, my right ankle was sore and my legs were heavy, I finished trying to maintain 85 as upper limit with 85, 85, 86, 85. Average pace was 82,1 closer to 80, but I still have work to do. I kept running into the night until I hit 10 miles, I was surprised that my legs after 2k of a slow jog got some life back in them and I moved at decent pace during the last 4k.

Sun, Aug 25, 2013

Sun, 25 Aug 2013 06:00:00

Two easy miles to give some rest to my sprained ankle.

Sat, Aug 24, 2013

Sat, 24 Aug 2013 06:00:00

The right ankle I sprained on august 15 is still half swollen and sore, I decided to avoid a fast workout this morning hoping to speed up the healing process. 8 easy miles around the lake.