Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Testing the Short Shorts

Mileage
Today: 8
Present: 137
Count: 19

When I started running again, I bought the shortest pair of shorts I had ever owned. It was terrifying, and they weren't even that short. But man were they fast.

Four years later, I finally own a pair of proper running shorts. And now I feel REALLY fast. Although perhaps equally self conscious of my blazing white thighs in all their glory for the world to see. The timing couldn't have been better for their maiden voyage.

Last night, my brother-in law Dave emailed my brother and I to see if either of us wanted to use his bib for the SF Marathon coming up on June 16th. He had signed up, but is sidelined with a back injury. My brother is already running, so it fell to me. Of course I wanted to run the race, but racing gets expensive and I have a few races I'd rather do at the end of the year.

So here I go. Earlier than I expected, and not really sure what to gun for. My heart tells me I can go under 3, but that's also a full 20 minutes off my PR. Sure, that was back in 2011 when my Achilles was all sorts of jacked up. Sure I didn't really know what I was doing back then. But rumor has it 3 hours is pretty fast.

3 hours is a 6:52 pace, and as best I can tell, my current lactate threshold pace is right around 6:45. So theoretically its possible, but I think a far better goal is 3:05, Boston qualifying and just over 7:00 pace. 7:00 is smooth and comfortable, and if I stay focused, I can run that pace very efficiently.

And after all, Dave is from New England so when "he" qualifies for Boston, it will mean a lot more for him to run it, than me. Anything below that would be pure gravy.

http://app.strava.com/activities/56870364

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