Hope To Run Again Before End Of The Year

After waking up I did not feel much like running.  But I went anyway.  I ran a slow 4 miles.  Later in the evening I ran another 4 before going to work.

4.12 - 8:45, 8:36, 8:25, 8:26, 1:01 - 35:15 - 8:33 avg.

4.05 - 7:41, 7:24, 7:19, 6:52, :25 - 29:43 - 7:20 avg.

Same course for each.

Got home from court after work and finally got to sleep at 11:45am.  Woke up at 3:30pm.  I am tired and the legs are tired.  So here's my rest day for this week.

Now I just need to re-adjust to normal working/living hours.

am - Got up and ran an easy and relaxed 4.

pm - The temperature had gone up a bit, but still much cooler than a couple of weeks ago.  Did 7.5 on a hillier(not sure if this word is correct) course than I normally run.  By the end my legs felt a little beat up and tired.

4.07 - 8:41, 8:41, 8:26, 8:25, :31 - 34:46 - 8:32 avg.

7.55 - 7:46, 7:27, 7:39, 7:38, 7:42, 7:44, 7:32, 4:06 - 57:37 - 7:37 avg.

My legs were a little tight and sore on this morning's run.  Only went 2.  Very slow.  And for the second morning in a row my left shoe came untied.  This never happens to me.  I used to tie them in double knots long ago, but stopped.  Guess I will start doing it again.

This afternoon it was a warm 87ºf.  I like warm weather as much as the next person, but it should not be this hot near the end of October.  Ran 6.  Legs getting tired.  I think the last few weeks of upping my mileage is catching up with me.  I will back off some the next couple of days.  I still want to run each day because I have heard this will actually keep the legs fresher.  I hope so at least.

2.14 - 9:17, 9:08, 1:12 - 19:39 - 9:10 avg.

6.37 - 7:50, 7:47, 7:44, 7:42, 7:47, 7:39, 2:52 - 49:25 - 7:45 avg.

By the way last night I took my daughter to her dance class.  There I met Robbie Pecht.  I had heard his name before and he lives 2 towns over from me.  He won the Richmond Marathon in 1981 with a 2:19:16(a PR).  He said he never started running until his senior year of high school.  Then he went to the University Of Virginia and joined a running club.  He also made the trials in 1980.  He commented how the mood was because Carter had already boycotted the Olympics for that year.  I found an article on Runner's World Online that said the current trials record was set that year.  Also 56 men went under 2:20, another current record.  I guess those guys had something to prove to themselves and the world that day. 

Quads and knees a little achy and tired.  Went to the gym and did 50 minutes on the elliptical trainer.  I figured that is at least worth 6 miles.  Which would be close enough to my road running pace to make it accurate.

Just 1 mile to keep the legs loose.  Race tomorrow.  More or less a training run for me, maybe a little faster.  But it shold be fun.  I will just call today a taper.  But my legs are much better than yesterday.  No "beat up" feeling.  I can go down stairs without putting the majority of mey weight on the handrail.

1.12 - 7:53, 1:02 - 8:55 - 7:57 avg.

I had no idea what to expect out of myself today.  Even 20 minutes before the start I had not decided if I was going to run the 5K or 10K.  But I did want to log a few miles today to go over 40 for the week and running the 10K would do that for me.  So my best guess as what I could do was: 7:30 avg=ok, 7:20 avg=good, and 7:15 avg or better=great.  Ran a mile warmup.  The temp. at the start was just under 70ºf and went over that a bit by the finish.  My legs felt very good since I had not run on the roads the last 2 days. 

The 1st mile is a gradual climb.  The first year I ran this I did not realize this and it hurt me in the end.  So today I just kept it comfortable.  The 5K and 10K were run at the same time.  There was only 1 10K runner in front of me and he was still pulling away.  I managed to pick off a few 5K runners on the 2nd mile.  I ran the same pace as the 1st mile.  Somewhere along the 3rd mile I thought I heard some footsteps behind me.  It got me to pick it up a bit.  Made the turn-around at 3.1 in 22:34.  At this point I still felt pretty good and decided could increase the pace.  But I was in unchartered territory since I was already running much faster than any of my training runs the last month and a half.  On the 4th mile I was starting to feel more tired.  But I reminded myself I was in a race and just tried to maintain a good pace.  5th mile I still was holding on, especially knowing the last mile was downhill.  I let it all go on the 6th.  Nice to run downhill to the end.

Here are the splits from my Garmin:

7:20
7:19
7:10	22:34 @ 3.1 split
7:04
7:03
6:50
1:14	21:29 @ 6.2 split

Total - 44:03  - 7:06 avg.

Every mile was faster than the one before it.  Even if only by a few tenths of a second.  And a negative split of 1:05 for the 2nd half of the race was a surprise.  I only glanced at the watch when it chimed in at every mile.  But I was running by feel, and glad I did not let the faster splits scare me into slowing down.

Last year, with more training and no injuries, I ran a 42:51.  2 years ago my best 5K on this course was a 23:19. Better training has definitely made me faster over the last 2 years.  I was very happy with my time and how good I felt during the race all the way to the end, especially after only running for a month and a half. 

The winning time was 40:04.