Stan the Man

The past week has been full of ups and downs in my training, but overall I'm very pleased with my recovery from the Pineland Farms Race. It's been a little tough getting out for workouts and motivation is hard to come by at times. I always try to find running partners and today I was lucky enough to have one. Stan is one of my Reach the Beach teammates, and lives nearby. We had talked about running together several times, but never seemed to get together. We connected after he checked out last week's race report, and arranged to run this morning. I had good runs of 11 and 16 miles on Thursday and Friday, and felt I was well recovered from the race. On Saturday, I wanted to go slower and get some time on my feet, so decided to run a very technical section of the Metacomet trail. After almost 4 hours of flailing, I had only covered 17 miles. I was beat, my feet hurt, and my mind was not into it. I decided to cut the run short and go home. So, I was really excited about running with Stan today. I was tired of solo running, and was glad to be able to catch up on things with Stan.

As luck would have it, we both wore the same RTB relay shirt from 3 years ago with blue shorts, so we looked like total running geeks. Go figure! Anyway, I took Stan on the standard 8 mile loop, and we moved along quite well. Stan talked about his run at the Marine Corp marathon last Fall, and his current training plans. He's planning to do the Hartford Marathon this year, so will be ramping up his mileage soon. Stan is one of the nicest people I have ever met, and it was a pleasure to run with him. After we finished the loop, I refueled and decided to do a cool down. After 1 mile, I felt so good that I decided to run another loop. I reflected on our conversation and took in the great weather. It was fun to run again!

Note: I'm always looking for training partners. If anyone out there wants to join me for any type of mileage, please drop me a line. I really enjoy the company!

Weekly Mileage:
Monday - rest
Tuesday - 3 miles, cross-training
Wed - Cross-training
Thursday - 11.5 miles, 1:20+/- tempo
Friday - 16 miles, 2:00 - moderate
Saturday - 17.5 miles, 3:45 - slow, grueling
Sunday - 17 miles, 2:15 - moderate
Weekly total - 65 miles