Good Times, Friends!

Today a bunch of TRY-ers participated in the Celiac 5k "cross country" race.  It was warm day, but it was a nice change of pace to do a race off the roads.  Aaron and Duerr finished close together, and Steve, Cynthia, and Berman followed in a nice pack.  It looks like the work in the winter and early season has paid off!  Terry, Catherine, and Katie were all there cheering and volunteering.  I also participated and was pleasantly surprised to really enjoy the course.  Great job everyone!  I hope everyone else had fun, too :)

I happened to come across this article about speed training, and I think it has some great points.  Speed work isn't about going all out or racing the other people out there.  You should be able to maintain your pace through all your intervals, and you should always finish feeling tired but like you could do just one more.  Take a look if you are interested.
http://www.runnersworld.com/race-training/hard-fast-rules

As Terry said on the website, last week was an awesome turnout, and we hope to have a good number of people again this week.  Everyone who is doing the Mountain Goat this weekend should be in their taper.  Make sure to listen to your body and do what workout it good for you. If you are tired from a hard weekend or have some nagging aches and pains, it is a good week to go easy or take a few days off.  The group will do quarters this week.  The short bursts of speed will be great preparation for the race this weekend, but as usual, you should do what is best for you.

I saw this on a blog I read, and I had to share...

--Kelly :)

Sad Day

Most of you know that I ran Boston today.  I had a fun race running for Team Beef in the marathon.  I was very happy with my race and glad that I enjoyed the experience.  The course is tough, especially for someone who didn't do much training on hills!

Eventually, I will give the full story of the post-race, but I'll give you the summary today.  We were in the family meeting area about 2 blocks away from the blasts.  We are safe in the suburbs, and we feel very lucky.

Thank you for all your well wishes and concerns.  We felt a lot of support both in the run and in a tough situation!

We will be back tomorrow and probably will show up at TRY.  Aaron will run, and I will walk (if the weather is nice).  Is anyone walking tomorrow?

I would recommend repeating last week's run:  4 miles with 4 quarters.  Run them faster than you train, but still not too hard yet.  Make sure you run at a level where you can jog between and circle back to meet the rest of the group as they finish.  I think it worked well last week.

If you didn't enjoy this workout or have another suggestion, let me know, and I will update the post.

--Kelly :)

Terry's addition:

I wasn't in the mood to do a post last night, but I had planned to do one this morning. I see Kelly beat me to it. So I'll quickly post what my intro would have been: The level of a tragedy does not change, but the connection with a tragedy does change with familiarity. It's selfish, sure, but it means more (seems worse) when people you know or a place you know is involved. So, I couldn't really return to work and concentrate for the rest of the afternoon once I saw the first tweet about what had happened yesterday. I thought of Kelly and Aaron and Kerri (the TRYers) and others I knew and thought "OMG" (the real words, not the letters) and what if one of them were caught up in this? What if they don't come back or come back hurt? A day of celebration. A "once-in-a-lifetime" type of race. And then pure coincidence on whether the event has changed your life forever. So, selfishly, I was very glad when reports trickled back that the people I know were fine. But other people will never be fine. And, at least for several years, big city races will not be the same. This hits the running community right where it hurts. Thinking smaller: since the roots of TRY come from events that occurred in the last half mile of a big city marathon, this cut TRY right to its core. There is very little difference from being in the right place at the right time and being in the wrong place at the wrong time. TRY mourns for the end of the innocence. 

Picking Up the Pace!

All right TRY-ers...it is time to pick up the pace in 2013!  There has been a great turnout for preseason TRY so far this year.  I hope everyone is able to join in tomorrow for another great workout.

For those participating in the workout, the group will do quarter miles.  I probably won't participate, but Aaron will join you for a 1 mile warm up at the group pace, 4 quarter miles faster with a quarter mile easy in between, and a 1.25 mile cool down at the group pace.  For each quarter, you should be at 10k pace or slower.  It should be a little faster than you are used to, but it shouldn't be difficult.  Once you finish your interval, jog back to the remainder of the group and help them finish their quarters.  If you can't jog and have to stop, you did your interval too fast.  The quick stop is hard on your body, and it would be great to see everyone get away from that.

If you would like to do something different, please break free from the group at the beginning of the run and join us for a walk around Angela's triangle at the end of the evening.

If you don't know what pace to go, feel free to ask me, and I will try to help.  I still have to ask for pace advice after 20 years of doing this!  It always helps to have a sounding board no matter how long you have been at this.  Remember that your pace should be dictated by your fitness level for this time of the year, and you always should do what is best for you.

The goal is to ramp up your fitness slowly for you goal race without risking injury, and we should be helping each other be successful as a group.  We all have been guilty of running too hard and have ended up with injuries.  I'm hoping this approach will get us all to the end of the year with healthy bodies!

--Kelly :)