Pyramid

It has been quiet in the updating front. Because of an easy week running has mostly been eazy. On Wednesday I had a massage and then of course on Thursday I had to try something new: eazy 9.5 miler with hard downhills. I got inspired by an article in the RT latest issue in which it was suggested that in case of heavy quads one should run fast downhills. Even if my heavy quads were partially caused by the massage, the workout helped. On Friday I felt only tired, but quads were working fine.

Today I did a interval medley (1/2/3/4/3/2/1 min. pyramid w/ 2 min. jog rest) in order to tease out fast paces. Today the pace varied from 3:02/km (4:53/mile) to 3:36/km (5:48) and afterwards I felt great! What a nice way to start your weekend!

Oh and April's mileage was 225 (over 60 miles more than in March).

Season opener

A race day. The first since last May!

Running most of my runs in low temperatures (30-35F) was the best preparation for today. Today was easily the best on this Spring (70s). Awesome. What a wonderful day to start new season and at the same time run your first hard tempo run since last year's May!!! I even got the farmer's tan!

The run itself wasn't that fast (it was actually little slower than expected), but was a great reality check. The tempo run was 4.47 miles (@ 5.48) (which of course doesn't make Mark at all scared; maybe it makes him laughing aloud and then cry). Last week was 65 miles which was about 15 miles more than I have ran during the best weeks after the surgery. At the same time this was the first week in which I chose to run 7 days in a row (+ two bike rides). So I was pretty done already during the warm-up and my new buddy, sunshine, wasn't helping my physical state at all. After analyzing my legs today, I think that I'm eating too huge pile of... so I gotta reframe my act. Sooner, the better. I still have eight weeks to improve the base before the hell (marathon training) breaks loose. But THIS IS AWESOME!

Easy days after Wednesday

Even if Wednesday's workout was far from "all out" one, I have felt it during the easy runs thereafter. So Thursday and Friday were easy ones (yesterday I ran w/ Lil' D) and today I ran bit longer one (15.5 miles) w/ Masai and Bruno.

Then we had a nice chance to go biking with sweetie and we rode some 24 easy miles. Pretty enjoyable season opener (temp is now high 50s). Next up... guiding our Chilean visitor here and there in Turku.

Workout Wednesday

My body/engine is regenerating itself piece by piece. Even if I did too long and partly too fast run on Monday, I was able to control today's tempo (6.1 miles @ steady state, hrm controlled, with 2k accleration in the end) quite well: 36:47 (18:32/18:15). In reality this particular workout barely saves me but I know that it could be worse!

Then during the CD I wondered that did Brian Sell used to listen to Mustach while he ran? Mustasch's singer has serious handlebars!

Monday

This is one of the best Mondays ever. I had a nice run with Pasma and ran all together 12.5 miles (@ 6:50s).

Thereafter I realized to follow Boston Marathon online which had some insane to offer this year. Geoffrey Mutai ran 2:03:02!!!! (with strong tailwind and non-WR course, but still...). Can't sleep... too much to digest!!!

[edit:] Tomorrow morning I might break my "wear only black" code and run with bright yellow Boston Marathon shirt. Emphasis on "might".

Watch more video of Flotrack's Workout Wednesday, Season 5 on flotrack.org

Weekend

Cool. I was able to bounce back on the road this week after all. On Friday and Saturday I ran 7.5 miles around at 7.00s. Additionally, the general feeling is great. The weather is now so awesome!!! In the early mornings when I do my jaunts it is still freezing but in the afternoon it's about high 50s.

Today I did the usual 5x3min'2min morning workout but running didn't feel so good (pace was about 5.25-5.30). Sweetie ran her warmup with Lil' D to meet me at her start and thereafter I did a bit longer cool down with D.

Yesterday I was helping out team mates while they were competing at the Road Nationals. Some photos from the race are located here.

And good luck for Jason, Mark, Phil and Seth (and the others) at Boston tomorrow!!!

Sudden ez week

Due to some health issues I had to take couple days off. Yesterday I joined a crew of youngsters (Bruni, Sundell & Mr. Rauma) and ran for 10 miles. Today I continued with 6 junk miles. Tomorrow I will have my turn to watch Road Running Nationals in Siuntio, and accordingly, tempo repeats will take place only on Sunday.


This morning's top three songs:

It's easy to smile while you're next to winners

Support crew knew already here that women

are going to win! (pic: Jarno Maimonen)

Workout Saturday

After Wednesday's workout my legs have felt really heavy. And that is just awesome!

Both on Thursday and Friday I did ez runs but today morning I found myself doing 5x3min.'2min. starting at 7:45AM. This workout was a bit more controlled than a week ago which is an indication of improving shape, right?

Today is also time for Karhu-viesti which is the biggest road run relay in Finland. Men run 50k and women's relay is about 35k. Unfortunately, the fastest guys of club are either training in Portugal, waiting their operated thumb to heal or just injured. So no mens team this year. But I'm happy that I can help women's team in their effort to reach city of Pori enough fast. 

Runners.... ready....

WOW

Workout Wednesday. Nice. I was going to run tempo already in the morning, but since I was watching a really bad bad dream (I was choking under a huge pile of snow) just before waking up, I decided to postpone the workout to the evening.

The plan was to duplicate the tempo workout which I used to do couple times on treadmill before I was ill. Today's 5-miler went pretty well (@5:53) since I ran it 1.5 minutes faster than earlier (my bad, too fast). The plan was to keep the pace around 6:00 but I just felt so ok.

HCS Racing Team

Now they too have a blog! http://stridersracingteam.blogspot.com/

Awesome!

It's on (I hope)

This week I've been mostly running easy 6 milers. Today I dared to run the first workout outside since ice is almost gone. Workout comprised 5x3min.'2min. (@ 5:20-5:30) and it felt great. This was actually the first outdoor workout since last July.

Good luck to everyone racing tomorrow at Cherry Blossom, in Berlin or at Tulppaanijuoksu.