March 2011 Recap

I just realized while on my run earlier today, that I never posted a March recap, but before I jump to that, I want to give a huge shout out to Andy for his stellar victory at the Mad City 100k earlier today. Not only did he win, beat second place by 10+ minutes, and set a new course record, but he officially made the US 100k World Team and will be racing in the Netherlands in September.

His time, you ask?
6:47... for 62 miles... which is a 6:33 pace... for 62 miles. His 50 mile time was just under 5:17. Doing the math makes my head hurt, so all I'm going to say is that is just stupid, retarded, incomprehendably fast. Congrats, man!

Okay, now for some far less exciting news. Here's how my March looked:

# of days I ran = 31
# of miles run = 262
Average miles = 8.45/day
Longest run = 26.2 miles

Aside from the Salida Marathon, March was pretty uneventful. I stayed consistent with my mileage and ran every day of the month. As I'm writing this, my consecutive days streak sits at 64. Coming into 2011, my longest streak on record was 11 days!

My most notable training run was geared towards preparing for both Brew to Brew and Boston. The workout consisted of a 7.5 mile easy warm up, followed by 8.5 miles at 6:07 pace, and then a 7 mile cooldown. The speed portion simulated running at a fast pace while somewhat fatigued, and the final 7 simulated the later miles in an ultra when your legs are completely toasted. It hurt soooo bad, but was a huge confidence booster and seemed to payoff last weekend. Now, as long as I'm somewhat recovered for Boston, I can hopefully break 2:50 and be done with road races for 2011. Based on the ease of the 2:57 marathon split at Brew to Brew, I don't think this is an unreasonable goal.

I don't know if I've written about it before, but I started playing in an adult ice hockey league in January. From here on, no monthly recap will be complete without complete highlights of all my sports. Sooo, here it is:

# goals scored: 5
Team record: 1-2

Since no official stats are kept, you're just going to have to take my word for it. My buddy Marc and I are moving up to a more advanced level starting at the end of April, so my stats aren't going to be anything to write home about, however, I just do it for fun, and cannot believe what a great workout it provides. It's like doing an hour long speed session once a week... your heartrate never drops!

Random song of choice. Give it a full listen... it gets good.