Cherry Blossoms and Strippers

While my weekend consisted of the 40/40 club, strippers and gambling, most of you were off being productive. I think I might put the PDAW up for a vote, cause I can put a little voting thing on the right hand side of the blog. I'll give you a few of the contenders:

Jake Marren - Finished 4th at some half marathon in Vermont, running a season best 1:19:06. This gives him guaranteed entry into this year's NYC Marathon.

Mike Zero - Ran 1:01:25 at Cherry Blossom, which was 2:02 faster than last year. He's in shape and ready for Boston in two weeks.

Melissa Bosslet - Ran 1:06:31 at Cherry Blossom, which was considerably faster than Club Challenge, and all in all a sick time.

Ryan Schmidt - Ran 1:03:59 at Cherry Blossom, which is 3 miles longer than his longest run over the last 6 months. His first 6 were on cruise control at 6:40 pace, and then he dropped his last 4 at 6:00/mile.

Of course, let's not forget the others who raced: Kyle Smits made his return to racing with a swift 52:36 and 22nd place overall, which made him among the top Americans/honkeys in the race. Arjun was probably the first Indian, running a superb 57:24, and Ben was probably the first person from Michigan who got married in August and went to Loyola Chicago, notching a 57:51. The three comprised the scorers for Falls Road, which finished 5th in the team scoring behind Pacers 'A', Georgetown Running Co, Pacers 'B' and HoCo Striders.

Other notables: T and Kris were probably not psyched on their performances, but raced nevertheless, and Sara Spears and Eve also ran quite well. In the Brandywine Valley Duathlon, Eric Benjamin took home 28th out of 325 and first Clydesdale.

So looking ahead we have two races this weekend, the Blue Jay 5k (http://www.hopkinstrack.com/bluejay5k) and the Orioles Advocates 5k, both in town. The schedule for the week looks the same as always, and here is tomorrow's workout:

3 x (400-800-400) with :60 after the 400, :60 after the 800 and 2:00 in between sets. Remember, there are no recoveries during races! Paces should resemble your mile pace for the 400, then your 5k pace, then your mile pace again. So for me I will look to run about 75-2:38/2:40-75. It's going to get really hard by the end (that's what she said).

This is a 3 mile workout, after last week I felt we stretched it a bit by going over 4 miles on week 1, so we'll bring it down a little. We'll also do some strides afterwards. Warmup at 6:30, workout starts at 7:00. Alternatively, email/call Mike Zero if you live or work south of the city and it's hard for you to get up to Gilman in time. He and possibly Sean and maybe Chris are going to mirror our workout down at a track in Catonsville area (UMBC vicinity)