Building Momentum

It's good to see that my times are still keeping up with 2010 but there's still a lot of room for improvement.  I'm looking forward to making May my turnaround month, both for weight and for mileage.

April 2010
Miles: 154.55
Average per week:  36.1
Races Run:  3
Race Miles:  35.5

April was an obvious big month for me but in the larger scheme of the 2011 running year it's just the middle of the first Marathon gauntlet I set for myself.  Combine that with a couple of smaller 5K's, the opening of the Back Cove series 5K, and warmer temps, this should be an even busier month in my running world.

Mother's Day:  Sea Dogs 5K
Sunday, May 8, 9AM
Hadlock Field, Portland, ME
Previous Times:  21:30 (2008), 20:23 (2010)

This is my third time running this in the last 4 years (I did not run it in 2009 due to scheduling conflicts with dance).  It's a very popular run, and it looks like they may hit the cap of 3,000 runners this year.  The course starts on the street outside Hadlock field and the majority of the course goes along Congress Street and down Brighton Avenue.

Mother's Day 5K Course Map

It's not a significant race for me other than a good gauge of how my 5K times are holding up in the midst of the longer races.

Sugarloaf  Vermont Marathon
In another break from the spring marathon tradition, I will not be running Sugarloaf.  There are a few reasons for this; the one most concerning to this blog is that I will instead be running a marathon on Memorial Day Weekend - the Vermont City Marathon.  There are pros and cons to running this, especially as a final chance to qualify for Boston 2012, but I am excited to take part.  Nestled in Burlington - one of the few bastions of civilization in Vermont - the race is very popular and has sold out already.  The route does loops around different parts of the city and features a few tough hills (notably mile 15 - the "Assault on Battery" hill) that will make this course a new challenge for me.  Though I'm a bit disappointed that I won't be running the marathon that qualified me, I will have a chance to find a new spot to accomplish the same thing.  I'll just have to really toe the line between aggression and smart running to get the sub 3:05 that I want to hit this year.  Otherwise, it's a long time to wait until April 2013...

Summer Preview
After Vermont is over, I can relax about marathons and take the summer to really put effort into the short and middle distances.  June will have a 10-miler, July a Half Marathon, and August will have a 5K or 10K every weekend.  The summer will round out with a fifth straight appearance at the Bangor Labor Day 5-miler.

No wonder why I'm stressing importance on having momentum now.  I'll need all of it to pull off a good running year.