Who did the what now?

Note- blogspot is proving very vexing, and not allowing me to post photos. I'll have to try again later to finalize this.

M: 17-Apr
69 min, 10+ miles of trailage at Warwick County Park. Today, I only fell into the stream with one foot.
T: 18-Apr
68 min run, with some 200s thrown in the middle at Haverford.
46min, 2.5 laps.
9 min 6 laps of track consisting of 6 X 200 in 33, 33, 32, 32, 31, 31
13 min jog back.
I assembled a project for my interactive marketing class in which I analyzed all the direct marketing that I was exposed to over 2 weeks. This includes spam emails, direct mail, banner ads, infomercials, and telemarketing. For purposes of the experiment, I pretended my gmail account didn't exist, which alone gets 50+ spam emails per day. All in all, the assignment was a little more fun than banging a kick to the crotch.
W: 19-Apr
15 min warmup to Haverford.
32:10 min total workout; 4X400 (68, 66, 67, 67) with 70 seconds rest, 3min rest and 400m jog, 3200m in 9:58, 3 min rest and 400 jog, 4 X 400 (67, 67, 67, 67) w. 70 rest.
14.5 min cooldown.
This workout felt swell, and might not have been challenging enough. Marcus was milling around, which provided motivation not to look overly snail-like.
T: 20-Apr
This was rather a long day. I worked for Alan in the morning, prior to cruising down to Baltimore to interview with Kaplan Learning Center. I gave a slamming talk on "how to prepare for a marathon." I wisely volunteered early, because the girl who followed me talked about "how to prepare for a 5K"--yawn, talk about unoriginal. I kept the talk simple, and even shocked myself by advising beginners to take walk breaks (for shame, I know). I have been offered this job and will begin training in June to teach GMAT and or LSAT courses.

35.5 min easy run, 5 miles around Baltimore. My achilles/heel was quite sore after a rather long day. I ran down to Federal Hill, which provides amazing views of the Inner Harbor. During the Civil War, Union troops set up on the hill, pointing cannons at the Baltimore business district to ensure their allegiance.

F: 21-Apr
16 min warm up to Dru Hill Park in Charm City.
I proceeded with a light tempo: 16:19 for approximately 3 miles around the reservoir, followed by 5X1min on, 1 min off through Wynman Park, and finally a 19 min cooldown by Hopkins undergrad and down historic Charles St. Total run was around 61min, so I will estimate 10 miles.

Tonight, Stacy and I went to a dinner party at the house of the head of Radiology at Hopkins. She is very ecclectic and has a house decorated with art hailing from across the globe, interspersed with childhood relics and pop culture references. I enjoyed the Jabba the Hutt doll about as much as the suit of ancient armor.
S: 22-Apr
6 or 7 miles, easy stroll around B-more. I don't recall the rest of the day, but I assume it was awesome.
S: 23-Apr
Pike's Peek 10k in Rockville, MD
18 min warmup, followed by
30:30 10k (4:55/mile), and
19 min cooldown with Frey, Bitok, and 1 or 2 others. I'm glad I met Bitok, who I will continue to run with in Baltimore. I believe Frey and I are good friends in some alternate, bizzarro universe. He was on recruiting visits with me to William & Mary and Princeton. I chose PU, he went off to W&M. Now, he's looking at law school at Villanova, where I just left, and I'm heading to W&M for law school. To quote Kansas "all we are is dust in the wind."

This was a superb race for me. I finished 5th overall, and bagged $150 along with a PR. Click here for results. A few papparazzi shots here. I felt strong today, and negative split the second half, throwing in a few surges to drop the 6th place finisher. I made the drive to the outskirts of DC to seek out the spicy competition, take advantage of a quick point-to-point course, and because the race was kind enough to "comp" my entry. The post-race fiesta wasn't too bad, either.

Weekly total: Approx. 62 miles. This was a solid week, w/ 2 workouts and a mighty race. Mileage remains low and my achilles would cry if it had tear ducts.

Amish Paradise

Off to the races in Lancaster. You can tell by the guy lined up to my right how high the caliber of this race was... stratospheric!

M: 10-Apr
0. Took a day off. All I recall is that I had a busy day working for Alan in Philly, followed by class. The day evaporated without time to scramble out for a run.
T: 11-Apr
15.5 min warm-up to Haverford, where it was actually quite warm today.
38 min work out of 6 X mile around the grass loop, w. 90 second rest. As I always mention, the rolling loop is slower than the track would be. A solid, strengthening workout with splits of: 5:01, 5:02, 5:01, 5:02, 5:02, 5:04.
14 min cooldown

W:12-Apr
72 min
11.5 miles
Today I ran the Havertown road loop, followed by 1 Haverford loop. Lengthy run, for a human.
R:13-Apr
15 min WU
4 mile tempo on track (5:20, 5:20, 5:15, 5:09); jog 800m/rest 5min, 4X200 (32, 32, 30.9, 30.8). Workout conducted fully in trainers. I only wanted a light workout today, and actually went a little harder than planned. I was forced onto the track, due to a plague of baseball games ravishing the grass loop that I normally workout on. I postponed my workout today long enough to catch the end-of-the-day rain/thunderstorm. On the bright side, there was a pretty rainbow. I was going to go to the end of the rainbow to hunt for leprechauns, but ran out of time. According to Mrs. O'Leary's Facts, leprechauns make most of their gold as shoemakers for other fairies. Makes sense, I guess. 14.5 min cooldown.
F:14-Apr
46:15, 7 miles easy pre-race 2 laps around Haverford. Later, I picked up Stacy, who brilliantly missed her train, and went home for Easter. We watched March of the Penguins on dvd, which was filmed in a stunning fashion. Penguins are tough customers, enduring weeks without food and mind-blowing weather extremes. My penguin friends, I salute you!

S:15-Apr

I took a chance and drove out to Lancaster this morning for a competition and hopefully some cash money.
18 min/2.5 mile warmup
5 miles in 25:34; splits 4:54, 10:02, 14:56, 20:20, 25:34. After 3 miles, no other competitors were in sight, so I relaxed. Confident in the win, I waved to spectators as I trotted home for the easy "W." Then, with less than 100m to go, I saw a blur out of the corner of my eye. Sure enough, some crazy mofo ran me down and almost stole the win. Luckily, I had enough time to kick in for the win. Turns out the lad who got second is no slouch, and was on last year's New Zealand World Cross Team. I breathed a big sigh of relief afterwards, for I won $200, and he, tragically, got nothing. Results (pdf format): Here.

Photo: 1 Lucky Dude

29 min, 3.5 mile cooldown with Stacy, up to Warwick's track. This race had a very "Lancaster" feel to it, with more cows along the course than spectators. I even viewed some Amish. The race was sponsored by Sauder's eggs, and they cooked scrambled eggs for us at the finish.

I immediately spent some of my money on the way home by getting my car's oil changed. My auto's A/C still needs to be addressed, as the beast actually breathes out hot air instead, which could make it a very long summer.
S:16-Apr
94 min. Today's long run was around Warwick County Park. I managed to fall into a stream early on, and put a gash in my shin. Some well-meaning person aligned rocks across the stream. However, he or she left the rocks very unsecure, making crossing even more treacherous. I was pretty tired on this hilly expedition.
Later today, my parents, Stacy, and I went to a small, cozy church for Easter. Cozy might not be quite the right adjective, for the pews were rather hard and cramped. Maybe "quaint." Easter dinner was delish, as expected. It might have been too good, as Stacy went home and immediately bought 5+lbs of sweet potatoes to attempt a duplication. I also snuck up and petted our feral cat, which is a rare accomplishment.

"You got to pray just to make it today"--MC Hammer
Weekly total: approx. 63.5. A good week, though the mileage was stunted by the day off on Monday. 2 ok workouts and a profitable race. A-OK.

Kicking it into high gear for finals...

"To all my little Hulkamaniacs, say your prayers, take your vitamins and you will never go wrong." -- Mr. H. Hogan