Most runners I talk with have a basic intellectual understanding of base training, however, very few actually put the concept into practice.

Base training has been around for decades and was popularized by the coaching legend Arthur Lydiard. There is a quite a bit of debate and nitpicking about what Lydiard actually did or didn't do. In my research, I've found that Lyrdiard worked from a set of principles and tweaked his athletes training depending on their goals, strengths, and weaknesses. It's more art than science.

This past Saturday I ran a fun race in Salisbury, Ma. The run for the roses 5K was run in chase format - the women would get a 3 minute head start before the men began running.

The chase format made things exciting as I was passing runners consistently during the race. Many were kind enough to yell at words of encouragement as I ran by.

I ended up coming in 2nd overall with a time of 19:49 which equals a 16:49 when the 3 minute head start is subtracted. The overall winner, Kara Hass, ran 17:09. It would have been close even without the head start!

This was a fun race with a relaxed vibe. I highly recommend checking it out if you live in the area!

Last night I had my first violin lesson. I enjoyed being a beginner at something and learning some of the fundamentals. I’ve dabbled in music for many years but have never taken formal lessons and have never played an instrument…unless you count a beat machine.

For at least the past year I haven't been doing many workouts. All of my running has either been slow and easy or a race. This has worked reasonably well. I ran a few good 5 mile races, PRd in the road 5K and ran a solid half-marathon.

I've also run some underwhelming races. My latest track race was not quite a "disaster" but it certainly wasn't great either.

At the moment my plan is to add a workout to my schedule on Monday nights. I teach a yoga class at 7:15 and there is a track on my way to off season. I figured stopping at the track to do a workout before yoga would be a better use of my time than running around the dark back roads behind the facility. The yoga after the workout should help enhance the benefits.

I'm not sure exactly what I'll do yet for the workouts. I need to confirm that I'm able to get on the track. If I am, I think some 400s might be in order. If I can't get on the track I might consider a tempo run around campus. I'm not sure yet.

This should be an interesting experiment and I'm eager to see what happens!

Yesterday was my 30th birthday and I kicked off the celebration by running a 5K at B.U.s indoor track. I had been feeling great leading up to the race, so the plan was to run a fast time.

In heindsight I did reasonably well, but failed to run a super fast time. I think my biggest mistake was letting the lead pack get too far in front early. Check out the highlight reel to see what I mean.

As you can see from the video, the lead pack get out really fast and I'm stuck in the middle. I had to work around a few people and then ended up leading the chase pack for a little bit.

From there it was pretty much back and forth, passing, getting passed...kind of a messy race.

I finished up in 15:47. Not as fast I hoped but still pretty solid. My key takeaways are that I need to solidify a better strategy before the race starts and I need to stay consistent with my long training runs.

I'm not sure what my next race is. I have some planning to do.

Thanksgiving morning I made the short trip to the feaster five road race. This race is truly legendary. Usually I like to use the excitement to my advantage and try to run a fast time but this year I just wanted to relax and have a good time. It's a holiday and I wanted to be sure I was in a really positive mood. Nobody wants to be around a grinch on a holiday, and I have a tendency to get really mad about not meeting my expectations in races, so the easiest thing to do was remove the expectations and practice happy, as the blog title says.

Today was the 32nd running of the Slattery's turkey trot in Fitchburg, MA. I love this race because it goes right through my old college campus. Last year I really blew it, so this year I was hoping for a more positive result.

What a difference a year can make. When it comes to racing, 2011 year was one of the most underwhelming years of my life. Nothing was particularly wrong. I had no injuries or illness to speak of, just a bunch of performances ranging from mediocre to terrible.

It was with great excitement that I made my way to Franklin Park in Boston, MA for the fourth half-marathon of this year/my life. Having run several high school and college cross country meets at Franklin Park I’ve developed a deep connection and resonance with the area, as I’m sure have many others.

Yesterday I made the short trip to Lowell, MA for the Jack Kerouac 5K, which would serve as the 2012 New England 5K championships. Coming into the race I was feeling great. For training I have been doing the large majority of my running at very slow paces, around 10 minute per mile or so. I’ve increased the amount of core stability work and maintained a solid amount of yoga.