The Prologue

I have finally decided to face the inevitable this year and start training more towards half and full marathons rather than continuing to bash my head against the brick wall of track 5K's and shorter distance races.
Living in Colorado at altitude is very conducive to excellent endurance training but not so convenient for trying to run a quality track season that ideally means you race at sea level 3 or 4 times in the space of a few months. This is the big reason for stepping up in distance and perhaps I'm an idiot for not making this realization earlier.
For the first time in a while, I am exited about training hard and have a new found enthusiasm for running that had begun to wain over the past year or so.

My training over the past few months has been spotty at best. Normally I am a model of consistency, which is the main philosophy I teach, and even though I have remained fairly consistent, my quality has really taken a hit. I have also suffered with some kind of severe allergy issue which put me back a few weeks at a time when I was trying to ramp it up. There have been many more 30 minute runs as apposed to 1 hour, more rest days than I should be taking and interval and Tempo sessions have been virtually non existent. I have however manage to prop up these losses with the gains of racing.
Back in June, I suffered through the Vail Half Marathon (13.7 miles up Vail Pass) and the next day did the lung busting Spring Run Off Trail 10K, followed by the 'Mud Run' later that afternoon.

This past week, July 4th, I ran two races back to back. First the Superior Downhill Mile. I didn't run that fast considering it was downhill but not too bad. I recommend this race if you want to post a mile PR! Then 2 hours later, blasted off in the 4 on the Fourth 4k in Boulder. This is one of my favorite local races put on by Avery Brewing Company with prizes of their delicious brews. Totally worth it.
Felt a little more comfortable at the slower 4k pace although was surprised that I hit a 5:12 first mile considering I was fairly relaxed at that point. I started to work off the turnaround as my Boulder Express (BX) team mate, Johnny Tribbia was making an obvious move to ditch me. He and very strong masters runner, James Johnson were beginning to pull away but I kept rolling and was surprised to see them starting to come back to me as we passed the 2 mile mark. Got over the gradual climb to the turnaround then I knew it was only a minute or so left so started the long kick for home which took me past both James and Johnny T. (The latter had ran the Vail hill climb the previous day so there were no excuses for not beating him. He really made me work). I ended up with 12:59, less than 20 seconds off my course best. Not bad.
That was a good weekend of work and for the first time in at least 3 weeks I feel good again and like my training is getting on track. I am confident that it won;t take me long to be in pretty good shape again and then I can really step it up for my first real marathon in October.