Sunday, March 29, 2009

What are friends for?

What are friends for? This video may give you some ideas..


Find more videos like this on RuncastTV

To keep you company when the road gets tough.
To tell bad jokes when your brain is fried.
To tell funny stories when you need distracting.
To be there when your legs hurt and are ready to fall off with yet another story

20 miles today around Boyden Lake and I caught the poor guy off guard, he didn't even know what hit him until it was too late to pull out. In fact, I think he enjoyed it (at first) but he did get rather quiet in the final miles.

The video tells some of the story but I didn't spring my plan of the 2x5 mi at marathon pace until well into our 5 mile warm up. I'm sure that he was forewarned last week but he said that he didn't remember. Anyway, very easy run to start (see Latest Workouts sidebar for the splits and details) with stops to record song bird noises for Ewen. I couldn't make out what kind of bird they were except for the racket they made as they swarmed together in the trees. Definitely another sound of spring. Shortly after we began our 1st 5 mile set at 'my' marathon pace of sub-8 minute pace over rather hilly terrain. It went reasonably well but we may have been pushing the pace slightly while 'running scared' and watching the Garmin splits and average paces. The 1st set came in at 7:42 avg pace and 1:31 under pace for the 5 miles. Sweet!

The next 5 easy miles felt rather 'ragged' and lacked any easy rhythm or smoothness. We made one detour to chase some Canada geese in a field and to record their noises for Ewen again. Another couple of miles to the Otis sign, stretched, sucked back a Powergel and off again for another hard 5. This time it felt alot more like work but the pace was nearly the same as the 1st set. A couple of sharp hills made it even harder but again the avg pace was 7:42 and 1:30 under overall target with avg heartrate up by about 5 beats with the effort. A great run but darn happy to have it over, right Andrew? Hey, what are friends for?

Thanks Andrew!

15 comments:

Jamie Anderson said...

Great video! You look to be primed and ready for Boston... awesome!

Dubs said...

Cool video. You will do great in Boston!!

Grellan said...

Good solid run Mike. I was waiting for one of Andrew's jokes, then again you kept him running at a pace that prevented his creative juices from flowing freely.

Thomas said...

Andrew almost managed a real smile at the halfway point!

Solid run, and very similar to the workout I have planned for Tuesday. Let's hope it will go as well as yours.

Getting excited now!

A. Power said...

Nice shoes! Good Luck in Boston :)

Andrew said...

A good run Mike! But I'm feeling it now.

Unknown said...

Sounds like all the Boston runners were out doing 20s today. Great job getting it done.

Ewen said...

Andrew's got no idea. I agree with you Mike, Canada geese are cool birds. I remember the first time we saw them on Vancouver Island. However the other birds - well, they just sound like birds - not nearly as magical as the Aussie Bellbirds!

Excellent 20 miler, and nice "joke pay-back" for Andrew with the 2 x 5 miles. Don't forget to pack the shorts for Boston ;)

Bill Carter said...

Very cool video!

Congrats on the great 20 miler! It looks like you are really ready to have a great Boston.

Best of luck and only 3 weeks to go.

bricey said...

good run and you both look surprisingly fresh after 20 miles!! Looking good for Boston.

Garry said...

You look like you are ready to take on Boston. And you are very lucky to have a friend like Andrew.

Michael said...

Nice video, well done with the 2x5k MP... less than 3 weeks! I'm loving it!

UMaine Cooperative Extension said...

Nice video. Looks like you are positioned well for Boston.

gumushel said...

hope to see you tomorrow mike!

DawnB said...

you're ready