It's been a while

It's been a while (like 2 years) since I posted a blog.  In reality I don't expect many people to read this.  That being said I have a long term running goal that I'm going to try for.  I want to qualify for the Boston Marathon by the time I'm 50 and I'm 48 now.  A lofty goal, to be sure, since I would need to run an hour faster than my PR last year which was 4:30.  The BQ time is 3:30 but with the new qualifying standards, it would be best to try and run at least 5 minutes faster than that.

Over the last 3+ years I've raced a lot and believed that if I couldn't run "fast" that I could race a lot. I didn't train as much as I should have nor did I recover from races.  I just seemed to go from one race to the next.  While I was improving, it was taking a toll on my body.  I was becoming a serial racer.  I love the atmosphere of racing, to see if you can PR or just have a good day.  I was also bad on recovery or "taking a race easy".  I was never able to do that.

Eventually my body broke down.  It happened this past April at the Crab Run half marathon in Cambridge, MD.  About 2 miles into the race, my left calf started to hurt, by mile 6 I could barely run, but being the stubborn SOB that I am, I kept going and finished the race in one of my slowest times ever on a course that was flat, fast and built for a PR.  I was limping in and disappointed in my effort, my body had let me down.  Reality struck that it wasn't my body letting me down, but me letting my body down.  I wasn't doing it "right", I was just doing it.  Running is supposed to be fun and I lost sight of that.  Running went from having fun with friends on the NCR trail or around the neighborhood to I "have to" get out there and run faster and harder and more often to keep up.  I realized then that I needed a reboot.  I needed to have fun with it again and a break was what I needed.  After the April fiasco turned into the May doldrums with two more bad races, I took the break I sorely needed.  2 weeks of no running, no exercising at all.  Those two weeks were blissful and wonderful.  I was re-invigorated.  June, July and August I only ran once a month and just enjoyed the runs.  In September I ran more and my times were dropping down.  I set a 5K PR in Washington, DC where I finished 3rd in Age Group and the next week I ran a decent 10K in Pikesville and won another 3rd in Age Group.  I'd been running for 7 years and not once did I ever finish top 3 in Age Group.  October I ran the Baltimore CareFirst half marathon, and ran the best half marathon I'd ever run in Baltimore.  Just a couple of weeks ago I ran the Across the Bay 10K over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.  It was an amazing race and views were awesome.  I ran a 10K PR which was great too.

My Boston journey starts with the Dick's Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon on May 3rd, 2015.  My goal right now is around 4:15 for the marathon.  I've worked out what I think will be a pretty good training plan.  But I also will not race as much as I have over the past few years.  I'm only looking to race a max of 10 times this year and take at least 2 weeks off after the marathon.

Wish me luck.

You can always follow me on:
Twitter at @reddsman
Dailymile.com at http://www.dailymile.com/people/DavidF2
Strava.com at Dave Flax