Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Taper & USA T&F 50K National Championship Week February 25 - March 2

Monday:
8 Miles a.m.
5 Miles p.m.
Both runs Downtown Cleveland
Day Total: 13 Miles

Tuesday:
8 Miles a.m. - Downtown Cleveland
Off - p.m.
Day Total: 8 Miles

Wednesday:
8 Miles a.m. - Downtown Cleveland
Off - p.m.
Day Total: 8 Miles

Thursday:
8 Miles a.m. - Downtown Cleveland
Off - p.m.
Day Total: 8 Miles

Friday:
Off - a.m.
Off - p.m.
Day Total: 0

Saturday:
3 Miles - a.m.
Off - p.m.

Sunday:
USA Track & Field 50K National Championship (New York)
4th - Overall in 3:16:16, my pace ended up being 6:19 per mile.
Very happy with my time. A bit disappointed with place.
The weather was a little chilly in the low 30's at the start with wind.
I was overdressed as the temps reached the low 40's.

Was talking with Daniel Verrington at the start. Dan is a previous winner of the USA T&F National Championship back in Pittsburgh. He is a very strong runner from the Boston area.
It was nice to see him again. I was planning on running with him since he said he would like to hold 6 min pace as long as possible. I thought I would be right with him. After the first lap I realized the Austin Marathon had taken more out of me then I thought. Dan continued on to set a USA T&F age group record for 45-49 in 3:17.

Mike Wardian had a strong run with his first USA T&F National Championship victory in 2:55:05. Fellow Patagonia team mate Andy Jones Wilkins AKA AJW from ID was in town for work. He decided to stick around and extra day and run the 50K. He ran as strong 3:30 for 9th overall.

Was nice to talk with Bob Sweeney. We both have the same PR's for almost every distance. We were team mates on the USA Track & Field 100K Team for a number of years. When Bobby says you ran a nice race, he means it. Bob is pretty tough and honest about giving congrats for a mediocre performance. It was a little amusing because he has seen me struggle for the past 5 years. He said no one know who you are any more. Sometime that's a good thing. It takes the pressure off!!!!

Day Total: 32 Miles: 31 plus — 1 Mile warm-up/cool-down

Week Total: 72 Miles

4 comments:

Lloyd said...

Who are you?

Ha. Nice race, Mark. Super start to the year.

Anonymous said...

Nice Mark!

Brett S. said...

Nice mark... Hope you had a nice run this morning. It's always fun to start a run by pushing a car out of the snow. I thought about heading back out with you guys but I wouldn't have ever kept up.

I am a runner. "We are what we repeatedly do" said...

I know who you are Mark..and I still hold my Huff 50k from 2001 (when I gave you some good competition for the first 25 miles) as one of my best performaces ever....because I was able to hang with THE Mark Godale! ha. good to see you getting the miles in again.
Greg