Speed work analytics: what about the mind?

The left knee is still sensitive on most of the runs, enough to contain my eagerness to returning to logging 62 miles a week, an average I hold on for 8 consecutive years, before the pandemic. Some will call that a blessing... The famous "listen to your body" adage...

This Sunday morning, after watching an impressive win of France over Italy --that would be rugby-- and working on my CFO duties for one of a non profit I'm involved in, I went back to the nearby track. As I wrote at the end of my trip report to Saint Lucia last week, we live in running paradise, here in California. Better make the most of it!

Last week, I did 6 repeat miles. Coming back from a week of slow running in the Caribbean, the first mile was sluggish at 6:40 but I eventually push the pace to run the last mile at 6:06. This week, I had in mind of running as many repeat miles, each below 6:30.

To my surprise, I clocked 6:12 with relative ease so decided that was going to be the new bar for the series. 6:09, 6:07, 6:04, all separated by the same 2-minute rest, I was on a roll! Since I wanted the series to last longer than 6, I eased up a bit to clock 6:05, 6:06 and 6:05 for the next ones. I finally got to 6:00 on repeat #8, then 5:57 for #9, running 100 meters behind a kid doing a 1,500-meter test, timed by his father. I couldn't match that in #10 (6:07) and decided that was an indication that was enough of a work out. The best news, for me anyway, was to feel the glutes so engaged and participating into the leg work challenge of the combination of an even faster cadence (my default one is already high) and longer stride (that I need to regain).

It felt exciting to be able to hold at that pace, for a big change. Even more so as I didn't feel my knee at all (but I did on the slow 8-min mile back home). That workout made me think of my Chicago marathon PR when I hold that pace (6:01) for 26.2 miles. 21 years ago, time flies, and disappear...

Overall, there is a ton of KPIs to track the biomechanics aspects of running. But when it comes to the mind and motivation, you have to listen to... your body indeed! That inner voice. The little monkey on your shoulder. The mind game...

So, short of having an objective measure on that end, sharing analytics collected and inferred by Garmin and Coros. With Coros tagging this training run as "Excessive" and giving me a punition of 92 hours until full recovery. Feeling like I got a red card on that one... when I thought I was doing something right... 🤪

Ah, these years when there was only one measure on your watch, time! Last century... A reminder of not forgetting to still run with our mind, head, soul and heart! 🤗

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Coros summary:

Garmin Connect charts:

Garmin Connect laps:

Garmin Connect zones:

Coros Apex 2 (analytics at your wrist, some while running, some, post workout):

Black Mountain: did I see you up there yet?

Two weeks since the last post. Time flies and I missed the weekly pace, sorry about that. It's not that I was short of thoughts to share about my running. As a matter of fact, I did run 159 miles and climbed 13,400 feet since my last post about this first dad-son half marathon. Not as many miles as I wanted but cannot complain too much, when others would like to log that in a month or two.

Between lot of work (for a change...), meetings, conference calls, slide ware, emails and one sales call in Salt Lake City (it's always cool to meet prospects), my free time got split between training hard for my upcoming 100-miler, my Toastmasters Orbiters Club Officer duties (including officer training, organizing our summer picnic and the design and editing of our very first newsletter), family before Max leaves for Yale and friends (two picnics last weekend). With that, very little time to write, or even sleep...

I had great runs over the past two weeks:

1. The day after the Wild West Half Marathon with Max, I took the afternoon off and, after sailing with our friends on Lake Tahoe, left Incline Village by 5 PM to climb Tunnel Creek trail and run 6 miles out and back on the Tahoe Rim Trail to the top of the Diamond Peak lift. What a treat to run on this amazing trail going all around the Lake for some 185 miles. That really gave me the bug to run the whole trail one of these days. Ahh, one more item in the to do and Bucket list...
2. A couple of days later I was in salt Lake City and having dinner in Sandy, just below the Wasatch mountains. There again came another bug to run the hard Wasatch 100 (miles) and here you go, one more project...
3. This past week, I was in town and so was my running buddy Bob, so we managed to get "back on track", meaning back to the Moutain View High School track for some speed workouts. It felt so good to get some fast laps. On Tuesday we did a series of 4 1,200 meters and my fastest was 3:57. On Thursday, a series of 3 miles, clocking 5:13 for my last one. I could feel muscles and fibers in my hamstring which I didn't feel for a long time with the fast leg speed and longer stride. Speed work is really something important to include in our training, and I didn't do enough of it these past months with all the racing, insanely early calls, and travel. Fortunately, the five high schools of our local Cupertino High School District are building 5 brand new tracks in the area, so this will give even more opportunities to get... back on track!
4. A nice run last Wednesday at Alviso with one of my colleagues, with temperatures close to 100F. Finally some heat training!
5. Quite a few loops in the neighborhood, some neighbors must get bored to see me passing by... I actually found a new 3.1-mile loop (5K) minimizing road crossings, which I did 8 times over three runs in the past two weeks.
6. Last but not least, I had three long 30-mile runs gravitating around Black Mountain. Enough miles to come with a series of thoughts and anecdotes, so here you are in a special section of this post.

Here is a panorama I took in March 2010 from the top of Black Mountain (click on the image to enlarge):

Popular Black Mountain

Black Mountain dominates Cupertino and is situated within the city boundaries. Yet, for many years, I have rarely seen anyone up there but a few adventurous hikers and the usual ultra runners whom I'm quite connected with through various groups and clubs. Well, I'm not sure what happened recently but this has changed, at least for the past two weeks. Here are some vignettes illustrating the newly popularity of the place.

1. A week ago, I was doing my solitary, tough and long run starting from home and climbing to the top of Black Mountain on Montebello Road (asphalt), then looping on Montebella Vista before coming back through Rancho San Antonio. As I was completing the Montebella Vista loop, I ran into teammate Sean. He was with another runner, Michael, and it was their first clinb to the top of Black Mountain, after many runs within the Rancho San Antonio vicinity. You see, that's at least two new people visiting this amazing spot where you get a 360-degree view on the Bay, Mount Hamilton, Mount Diablo, San Francisco, Oakland, Mount Tamalpais and the Ocean. It was a short 15-mile run for Sean, twice as much for me, yet we both hammered the trail down to the main parking lot. I told Sean that I would have never pushed that much on my own and he replied that it was the same for him; that illustrates the benefit of training with a fast partner... I completed the 29.5-mile loop just under 4 hours (3:56), right on 8 minute/mile pace which is good given the 4,200 feet of cumulative elevation.
2. Last Saturday, I parked at Rancho San Antonio and was pleased to actually find a parking spot at 6:30 in the morning (the lot usually fills up even earlier on weekends!). I was rushing to meet with a group of ultra runners strating from the Rhus Ridge entrance on the other side of the Park. Just after the Farm, I passed a group of about a dozen runners and Louis called me out. I had seen him at the start of Skyline 50, it was his second 50K. I asked where they were going and he replied... "to the top of Black Mountain!" And that I will probably be there before them. I don't know if it was their first time, but there hasn't many runners doing the 15-mile round trip from Rancho San Antonio, so way to go guys and gals!
3. I did meet the other group at the top of the steep climb from Rhus Ridge. It has been a while since I did this run and it felt great to reconnect with Mike, Chris, Charles and David. As we were approaching the top of Black Mountain we crossed quite a few Indian hikers coming down. It wasn't even 8 AM so that mean they must have started their hike around 6 AM if not sooner! Again, very unusual to see that many people on the trail, that high and that early in the day.
4. Just before the summit, we ran into two runners, Doug and Susan who stayed with us for the remainder of the 20-mile loop (I did 10 more miles from and to the main parking lot). They recently moved back to California, Doug's home state after years spent in other countries and states, the latest being Utah. Doug admitted nothing beats the Bay Area weather and they had a lot of fun enjoying again our treasured trails. Welcome back Doug and Susan!
5. It was even more suprising to see so many hikers this morning that the weather was really not good. After the heat wave of a couple of days ago, the wind was blowing hard at the top, pushing fog and clouds, and it was really getting chilly, likely in the low 60s. Fortunately, we ran the rest of the loop in the sun. Anyway, as we stopped at the Black Mountain camp ground to take some water, we ran into the other Mike. And to add more to this illustration of the popularity of Black Mountain, there were at least 8 tents on the campground. Even at Memorial or Labor Day, I never saw that many.
6. Our Saturday run continued through the Foothills Park, open to Palo Alto residents only. After a short stop at the Interpretive Center, we went on Coyote Trail, Chris leading the way. I was with Mike and we were talking about our professional careers when we saw Chris turning back with another runner: they had just seen a moutain lion crossing the trail in front of them and camping in a nearby bush just above the trail. I wanted to continue and take a picture, but Chris and Mike said it was really a bad idea and joked saying that would be my last picture and make a great final post, yikes! So we turned back and found another trail to avoid this section. Doing so, Charles, Doug and Susan caught up with us which made a larger group in case we were going to encounter this beast again. We stopped at the Park entrance to warn the Rangers and tell them about our encounter, in a park which is really busy on weekends and many kids playing out there. Sorry, no picture of the animal, but better this way.
7. I said bye to Mike, David and Charles near the Rhus Ridge parking lot. Indeed, with this affluence, they could not find a single spot so they all parked in a nearby street. Running across the small lot, I saw a Police car and policeman and noticed that the gate was opened. I was wondering what what going on and, as I was pushing hard on the way up to Windmill Pasture, crossed a Ranger. He stopped his huge truck to let me go, but I stopped by to tell him about the mountain lion incident. Before I could even start, he asked which car I had as he was looking for the owner of a car which just got broken into on the parking lot. Damned, with the popularity of this park and this mountain comes the insanity of insecurity, how sad. That's why some "hard core" ultra runners are against promoting the joy of our sport and would rather keep our community exlcusive. A dilemma... At least, my running budies got lucky this time that they could not park on the lot that morning! Back to the Ranger, I told him about our encounter and he was not surprised. He said that if you see deers, then this is mountain lion's food so the lions aren't far (and indeed, several deers we saw during our run). He also said that mountain lions are rarely seen but they are out there and watching us. Brrr, I thought they were all sleeping during day time...
8. On Sunday, I left home for another of my Montebello Road and Rancho San Antonio loop. I carried my camera the whole way, hoping for great views from the top. There wasn't clouds like the day before, except over the Ocean as most of the time, but the air was not pure, so we couldn't see very far. No pictures of that run then. I passed a couple of bikes on the way up on Montebello Road but got passed by one, a mountain biker who I saw in a few occasions before. Tall and long legs, he is amazingly fluid. In the steep sections, he is going back and forth between the side and middle lines of the road, a sinusoidal trajectory along imaginary switchbacks to be more efficient. I thought that I'll ask him his name if he comes down the same route and, close after the Ridge winery, I saw him coming down really fast yet yelled "Who are you?" He put on the brakes, passes me but stop shortly behind so I run back and, getting to my camera, told him "I need to take a picture of you!" At these words, he leaves promptly and without looking behind at me, so he clearly wants to remain anonymous, oops! I've heard about an ex Ironman champion and triathlon coach living on Stevens Creek Canyon Road, maybe that's him.
9. At the bottom of my Montavista Trail loop, I saw two hikers looking at a map and I stopped to help. They were looking for the Table Top Mountain, but were off the map so I sent them to the top of the... popular Black Mountain since there were just 1.5 miles away from it (albeit steep miles). However, before leaving them as I was completing the loop clockwise, I made sure they knew that there was water at the campground if they needed any (it says that it is not potable but we do drink it and Charles said that it is going though two UV filters, as long as the electricity is up at the campground). I actually saw them at the campground as I was leaving after refilling my Gu2O bottle, and I indicated the shortest way back to Skyline Boulevard where they had started in the morning. Again, new people on Black Mountain!
10. At the campground there was also 2 horse riders, which is also uncommon. They were coming from the Stevens Creek Canyon road I believe. Busy camp ground this weekend! On my way down to Rancho San Antonio I saw a handful of runners and then of course many people around the Farm, which is one mile away from the parking lot. I completed the loop again in a record time in 3:55:59, pushing all the way through the streets of Cupertino. In addition to 2 bottles of Gu2O and 2 S!Caps, I had taken only 1 Gu (100 calories) and a Snickers bar (240 cal) while SportTracks rated my run at 2,900 calories spent. Needless to say, I was starving and enjoyed a chicken Caesar salad with Alex. Still 20 minutes after my run and a short hot shower my lips where blue and I weighted 124 pounds instead of the usual 127-128. I was much better after soaking for 15 minutes in the jacuzzi and a 30' nap, ready to work for several hours on presentations and catching up with emails. Not much time to rest, life goes on.

You can see a few pictures of our Saturday run in my Picasa album, as well as previous runs from Rhus Ridge: August 2010, October 2009, April 2009. As well as other pictures taken around Black Mountain in March 2010,

Ok, that's it for the Black Mountain news. Until I see you too up there, ok?

One last thing: this weekend was the Angeles Crest 100-miler and also the UTMB (Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc). Being familiar with the course, it is the latter that I followed partially. Actually very partially as the race was stopped after 20 miles (out of 104 miles) due to bad weather conditions (rain and snow) and a major mud slide on the course on the Italian side. To make up for the disappointment of the interruption, the organizers proposed to the participants to run the second half, also known as the CCC for Courmayeur-Champex-Chamonix, the part of the course which I ran solo this past July (except for the finish through La Flégère). Unfortunately, not all runners received the text message. Jim Magill did and ran the CCC instead then, but not Mark Nassi from the Bay Area, creating a double frustration for him. It was the 6th edition of UTMB and they had bad weather before but that was the first cancellation. The alea and hazardousness of mountaineering...

I'm on my way to Austin, TX, for business and I will be tapering for the next two weeks. Take care, stay healthy and run happy!

Labor(ious) Day weekend: 4 stories, 1 post

As the kids get older, as Agnès teaches in high school this year, as I settle into IBM, long weekends are welcome to... work and catch up with our to do lists, barely taking a break. Not the typical American Labor Day weekend which usually means camping or barbecue parties! Oh well, another time...

There are four running-related storied I want to share with you tonight but I don't have time to do four posts. And you don't have time to read four posts anyway, right? Here they are:

1. Last week's Stevens Creek Striders' Clambake
2. More speed at Rancho
3. Erik Skaggs' kidney failure after Where's Waldo 100K
4. My Quicksilver double half marathon

And they make for a long post...

1. Last week's Stevens Creek Striders' Clambake

This is a summer tradition for our Stevens Creek Striders club. The event consists in a run from Saratoga Gap to the Ocean, followed by a picnic, a potluck format with the club providing clam chowder. I had too much work last weekend to go to the beach (and get Agnès to pick me up there), so I joined the group at 7 am for the start from Saratoga Gap, ran the first 7 miles of the beautiful Skyline To The Sea trail and 7 miles back to Skyline. We were 13 at the start, plus a few volunteers manning the mobile aid station. Some runners actually stop at Big Basin, when others joined to run the second and final Big Basin to the Beach section. Nice sunrise on the way to Saratoga Gap (Highway 9):
I posted a few pictures in Picasa, although, for once, I thought my camera was not very cooperative. It was a beautiful day, after a very hot day in the Bay on Saturday, and the light (not enough or too much) tricked my camera (and me too!). Anyway, here they are, at least they will help remembering who was at the start of the Clambake 2009 in a few years.
Also remember that Peter certainly did lead the group for a mile this year!
Michael has also posted a few pictures in his Facebook album. If you want more details on the format of the run, you can read my report from 2007.

2. More speed at Rancho

No, I did not get a speed ticket at Rancho this Saturday. If you read my previous post, you know that I was able to turn some stress at work into positive energy in speed work sessions, with my second fastest mile ever. This Saturday, I was back at Rancho again, driving with Max who met with his Cupertino High School cross-country team. They are training hard, preparing for their first meet this coming Thursday at Lynbrook.

I did my Rogue/PG&E loop (counter clockwise tour of the park) and started hard. On the way up, I stopped to talk to Patrick who was on his way back. I met Patrick two years ago at Wiskeytown 50K and Patrick told me he just moved in Sunnyvale so we should see him more often. At the top of Rogue, I stopped again, this time to chat with Mr. Stevens (the husband of Mrs. Stevens who had Greg for one year at Garden Gate Elementary School).

I was still feeling good and pushed all the way up, then flew down on (or over?!) the PG&E trail. At some point in the steepest downhills my GPS indicated 4:15 min/mile; I think I scared some of the hikers going that fast, and even myself! Bottom line I completed the loop in 1:03:38, which is my PR on this course (I'll take it as a PR although I stopped the watch when socializing with Patrick and Mr. Stevens for a minute or so). From time to time during this run I was wondering how I would do if there was a race organized at Rancho but, fortunately, I don't need a run to be an official race to push the pace! Yet, I'd like to see someone going under 1 hour, this is certainly doable (well, not me, but someone younger and faster!).

3. Erik Skaggs' kidney failure

I got the news last weekend in an email from a local runner, a very bad news and one big lesson to learn. 2 weeks ago, Erik won the USA Track&Field 100K trail championship in Oregon (Where is Waldo). He was not feeling well for the next two days and his boss figured out Erik had an issue with his kidneys. That was confirmed by the hospital which kept him for 5 days. If you don't know Erik, you may remember my post on his win at the Quad Dipsea last November. Here is a great shot from Agnès, right in the action!
Here am I with him after the finish:
The good news is that, after 2 weeks, Erik is getting better and his kidneys showing good signs of recovery. Phew! You can read health updates on the Rogue Valley Runners blog.

The not so good news is that Erik will incur huge hospital bills (I've heard around $30K), and has no insurance coverage except for $9K though his USA T&F membership.

And the lesson to learn? Not relying on Ibuprofen in ultras. Cobining anti-inflammatory and dehydratation is the best recipe to shut the kidneys down... My doctor had told be that a few years ago and I never used anti-inflammatory medicine during or close to a race. Besides, I find border line to use such medication in competition (like I feel guilty when I need to use my inhaler when I get asthma). Anyway, seeing what happened to Erik, you have been warned!

To help addressing Erik's critical situation, an Erik Skaggs Medical Fund has been set up by his friends at Umpqua Bank, 250 Pioneer St., Ashland OR 97520 (make sure to write "Erik Skaggs Medical Fund" on the envelope). A check is on its way from Cupertino; thank you if you can consider helping Erik too!

4. My Quicklsilver double half marathon

This is a weird concept, isn't it? Yes, I ran a marathon this Monday morning, on Labor Day. I actually ran two half marathons, twice the course of next weekend's race, the Quicksilver Challenge Half Marathon. After a few training runs there, and my great experience of the Quicksilver 50 miles in May, I am more familiar with the trail system of this large park in South San Jose, but I wanted to check the course to be sure of what to expect next Sunday.

Adam Blum is the race director and we made a deal back in May: he came to run part of my training run at Quicksilver during my Western States Memorial Day training weekend but made me promise to run his race in return. Deal, I'm in!

I studied the online map carefully last night and, stopping at each intersection today, was able to complete the convoluted loop (8 shape) without any mistake. I was back to the Hacienda entrance/parking lot after 1:41 of running. I had pushed reasonably hard although I was still feeling some soreness from my Rancho PR and my goal was to complete two loops this morning, and was therefore keeping some energy for the second round.

In the parking lot I met Troy again (I had seen him and one of his friends earlier on the trail), who advertised his Californian trail race series.
I couldn't find any water at the parking lot, nor on the course, so I left the parking lot with both my bottles half filled, which turned out to be a bit short with the rising temperature. I completed the second lap in exactly the same time, although I found the second climb up to English Camp to be much tougher than the first time, as I was getting dehydrated (and tired maybe?). Overall, I clocked 3:22:46 for the full marathon, not too bad given the hilly terrain (4,300 ft of cumulative elevation). Yet, it is going to be another story to match the best times ran on this course since 2000... I thought the course record was just over 1:30 but I now see that Martin Mumenthaler clocked an amazing 1:26:00 in 2002. This goal is going to be a stretch...

This is really a nice event if you want to give a try to trail running. First, you can pick a shorter distance (10K or 6.1 miles). Second, the views over the Bay are gorgeous. Third, if you are used to the crowded road events, you will be surprised about the friendliness and camaraderie of a much smaller group. With that, I hope you can join us; please check the Quicksilver Running Club website out! (If some links don't work in Firefox, they should work with Internet Explorer.) You can even register on race day.

Talk to you in a week then, about the official Quicksilver "single" half-marathon.

PS: oh, by the way, did you guess the number of words starting with an s in my previous post? I did a quick check tonight and, back to the title, that was laborious... I found 206! Granted, with some repeats, including a few "so", but... still... ;-)

Not farther but, fortunately, faster

[You may want to skip to my Big Bunny Fun Run 5K race report]

When setting this year's race program up, I knew I was chasing many goals. When you switch to ultrarunning and ultramarathon, you run marathons as training runs. Training for a marathon is a very different exercise, and seems like a distraction or detour.

After last week's 50-mile Ruth Anderson race, which I transformed as my last long run before Boston by switching from my initial 100K goal, I wanted to know if I was still capable of running fast miles. I know, everything is relative, it's not that I got slow in ultras, but it's really a different pace. So, by fast for me, I mean sub-6 minutes/mile pace. After RA, I didn't run on Sunday April fool's day (despite Dean's advice that you should actually run the day after such ultras), and ran an easy 8 mn/mile 7-mile loop with Michael, a co-worker, at Shoreline Park, close to ILOG.

As I mentioned in my "Boston, you've got mail" article, I still include in my weekly training regimen 2 sessions of speed work at the track, with my friend Bob.

Tuesday 3

So here we are for one of our last speedwork sessions before Boston. As usual, 2-mile warm-up from 5:45 to 6am. I decide Bob to go for a mile repeat (a series of miles) below 6. It's dark, we can't see our watch at the 200m-mark to check the pace. Bob is leading, he has a great stride, we work really well together. Unfortunately, he drops after the first lap, and I find him after my second lap with an accute pain in his harmstring. He has been complaining about his harmstring for a couple of weeks now, especially after his last business trip to Spain. Fortunately, he got an appointment in the afternoon at SMI (Sports Medicine Institute in Palo Alto, the place I got my Vo2Max test), for a specialized deep tissue massage, so he will just stretch in the meantime.

After this initial 800m, I continue the session with a mile at 5:43, then 5:45, and a 800m in 2:32. Not my fastest 800m, but speed is back, feels good already!

Wednesday 4

Michael was supposed to come with me but cancels as he is working on a nasty bug in his product with Gregory. I decide to do my 6.8-mile loop at Shoreline Park again today. Start at a reasonable 6:30 pace. I didn't even think of pushing much, since I originally planned for an easy run between the two speed works of this week. Yet, after a couple of miles, I increase the pace. Bottom line: my third fastest time on this loop, 42:29. 6:13 mn/mile, I can do better.

Thursday 5

Back to the track. Bob does feel a bit better after the massage, yet not completely healed. Wisely, he doesn't show up and decides to wait until Sunday for a potential tempo run.

After a 2-mile warm-up, I start the mile repeat at 5:45, followed by a 5:35. Between each mile, 1:20-rest (20" per lap). For the last mile, I start with a 1:14 lap, uh! 2 laps in 2:29, I'm holding... 3 laps in 3:54, I don't even remember if I've ran that fast in our 1,200-repeats or pyramids. Anyway, I keep pushing to finish in a blazing 5:07.

5:07, that's a new milestone for me. Can't say it's my mile PR, as I never really ran one mile to check, only repeat miles. But it's the fastest I've ever run in such speedwork sessions. Last time was a couple of years ago, 5:09.

Feels really good, a few days after a 50-miler. And 10 days before Boston, to get back to my marathon marks. Needless to say, after loosing a few pounds at RA, pounds gained inparticular during my injury break of January-February, I'm back to my ideal racing weight (126lbs - 57kg).

Friday 6

I like to rest the day before a road race, and tomorrow is...


Saturday 7


Big Bunny Fun Run, 5K, in my home town, Cupertino, CA! Right around the block from where we live, this is really an event the family likes to participate in when we are in town. More than 400 runners/walkers this year, quite a good turnout. As one of the city's 13 Teen Commission members, Alex is a volunteer and goes on site to setup the post-race food buffet at 7am.

9am, it's so packed that it's even hard to get a good stop on the start line.

Barely kidding, there were some kids which are so competitive that they rushed at the start like we were running a 100m dash. Needless to say, there are off oxygen after the first turn in Cupertino's streets.


At 300m, I'm still behind too "resisting" teens, who I pass. Before the first mile (this year the miles were not marked, but I know the course and can easily say from the clock), I hear a runner breathing in my back and trying to catch up. I decide to hold the pace, which I could feel was fast. After 1.5 miles, I'm on my own, following the race official truck opening the way.

Pushing all the way, to a 16:09 finish for first overall, and... 5:12 mn/mile. OK, I need to measure the course, to see how close to 5K that really was, but I really did run fast this time.

After crossing the line, I go back on the course to meet with the rest of the family.

Alex also ran in the 10-13 age group, not placing with 20+ minutes.

Greg, who entered the same age group this year, did an amazing 22:32, his PR on this distance which he likes. A 13-lap credit for his school exercise program this week.

Max who is acting in his high school amazing Guys And Dolls Sping musical, and had a late representation the night before, missed the start this year.

Enjoyed the post-race buffet with great fruits and muffins from Whole Foods. As top finisher, I got a free coffee at the Cupertino Library Coffee Society store, which our family coach, reporter and photographer, Agnès, appreciated very much. A big thank you to the Coffee Society's cool crew and Whole Foods for their sponsorship of the event.

There are always amazing prizes at the post-race raffle, like a $200 gift certificate for Alexander's Steak House, 2 free passes to Raging Waters, other restaurant coupons and tickets to sport games. Not for us this year, but an age-group winner plaque for me, the 6th year for this fun race.

Sunday 8

Bob is still tapering, to make sure to properly heal before Boston. He followed such a consistent 4-month marathon training program, shape shouldn't be an issue for him next week.

So I decide to go to Homestead track for an ultimate tempo run. Not on my own, actually, the three boys come to the field with me, while Agnès is cooking for our Easter lunch (a delicious lamb --the traditional French gigot d'agneau-- and chocolate tart, yummy). BTW, the boys didn't really come to run with me, or count the 40 laps for me, the bring books and homework with them... Yet, it's nice to have company for the hour.

My supporting crew

So, here we are for 40 laps. No warm-up, I usually use the first laps for that. Although, with the great weather and some excitement from the week, I start off below the 6 mn/mile pace with 2:54 for the first 800m. 5:48 for the first mile, I slow down to 5:55 for the second. 10" to drink at mile 2.5 which I pass at 14:25. Another brief stop (not the clock though) at mile 5, then none from lap 20 to 40. I indicate some of the count downs to the boys while passing.

10 miles in 58:33, 5:51 mn/mile. I was shooting for something close to 6, close enough, and on the right side.

Faster than planned, yet the boys are looking forward to returning home for lunch, must be ready by then! Not to mention the traditional egg hunt which Greg is so excited about.

On the running side, that was quite a good week, and I enjoyed the fast miles. We'll see how it plays for Boston after a tapering week, a dissociated Scandinavian diet (1) (hence some exercise on Monday and Tuesday), and hopefully enough sleep and not too much stress.

Stay tuned. 'Till Patriot's Day!

(1) In French, le régime Scandinave dissocié.