I am in my second day of a three day weekend. I'm off Monday because Nathan's daycare is closed for President's Day. Friday afternoon I got home at 1500 and run an easy five to get things loosened up for my 12 miler on Saturday. My shoes are old and my body was beat up and I ran a sedate 41:23.
Saturday morning I headed out to the old Lincoln Memorial half marathon course to get my 12 on the hills. It was 28 with a wind from the SE at 8 mph and a wind chill of 20. I think it was warmer than that because I got pretty toasty the last half of the run.
I really wanted to run right around 8:00 pace or slower but my two cups of coffee had other ideas and I hit five miles in the neighborhood of 39:45. I ran out to where I thought the six mile mark was and saw that I'd run a 9:28 mile. I then turned around and ran a 9:26 to the seven mile mark. Apparently I forgot where the six mile mark was.
I cruised to the finish in 1:36:28 and after measuring the course on the USATF website I saw that I had actually run something like 12.33 miles at about 7:48 pace. Oh well. I felt pretty good. . .
Until this morning when I went out for a five mile recovery run and ran splits of 8:33, 9:02, 8:42, 9:10 (I had to stop and stretch right after the three mile mark as my quads and hips were so tight), and 8:24 with a total time of 43:53. I did twenty minutes of yoga, sat in an ice bath like this young lady except I didn't put ice in my cold water because I didn't want to wake up my napping boy. I also didn't have my Runner's World magazine with me, and I was wearing shorts.
My son has decided he likes the movie "Cars" and is out in the living room watching it for the FOURTH time in the last week. I USED to love the movie, now I'm not so sure.
I dug out my old training journals from high school a few days ago and they made for some interesting reading. For instance, this week in 1995 I ran our hard, hilly five mile course, the Can, in 31:40. A few days later I ran 8 x 1200 in 4:53, 4:49, 4:42, 4:37, 4:33, 4:27, 4:21 and 4:13. We did continuous recovery which amounted to about 300 meters of jogging down an alley to the starting point of our loop.
This same week in 1996 I ran a two mile time trial in 11:11.64 with splits of 5:38.21 and 5:33.43. I also ran an easy 10 miles in 1:13:24.
I would love to run those times again. I pretty sure I could handle 31:40 for five this season but 11:11 for two might have to wait for next year.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
Great job on the 12.33. That's really strong. You are going to run well in the half.
My old log books are in my parent's house. It's been a long time since I looked at them, but the last time I did, I was kind of stunned by what a typical running week once looked like. Both the volume and intensity are no longer attainable.
I've had a strong weekend of workouts. Friday after class, I did a 26 mile ride on a fairly challenging course. Saturday, I ran 10 on a very flat rails-to-trails path in the next county south of here. Didn't feel great, but basically ran the same pace as last weekend.
Then, today, I did an easy 24-mile ride with a buddy of mine. Tomorrow, it's supposed to be in the mid-60s, so I think I'll get back on the bike.
By the way, I'm thinking that I'll run a 10K in mid-April. It will be a tune up for the 15K we're doing in the mountains in mid-May. It will be the first race I've run since the Black Mountain Marathon in February 2006.
Sounds like you had a nice week of training too. I would kill for temps in the 50s and 60s.
Good luck on your 10K! If the course is flat I'm predicting somewhere in the mid to low 40:00s and if it isn't 41:00.
Just 'cause you're a stud.
It's been an unusually mild winter here. I think I've only worn tights two or at most three times, and even then, I could've gone without.
I really don't know what to expect from the 10K. Topography in this part of North Carolina is pretty unpredictable. East of Raleigh (15 miles from here), you are in coastal plain where hills are hard to come by. Go a little west of here, and you get into the foothills, where you are sure to have some climbing. But where we live, it's tough to know what to expect from a 10K course.
I've been running well, so provided that I stay healthy and continue to get stronger over the next two months, I think I'll be able to run a decent race. However, so far removed from my last competitive run, it's hard to know what would qualify as a "decent race."
I really think you can go under 40:00. That wouldn't surprise me from you at all. Go out relaxed your first two miles and then let the chips fall where they may the last 4.2.
A guy in the club I am friends with just took about 7 or 8 minutes off his marathon PR this weekend in Austin. He ran 3:07 or 3:08 in Chicago this past fall and ran 2:59:24 yesterday. He's also 43 or 44 years old. He was running 20:40s for 5k in 2005 and now he's running sub-3:00 marathons. Geez Louise!
40 sounds doable, until I do the math and realize that's like 6:26 miles or something. Not sure about that.
There's a different 10K in 2 weeks. There's a part of me tempted to jump in that one instead. I dunno'.
By the way, the first time I read your post, I could've sworn that you wrote that you'd sat in the ice bath WITH that young lady.
Nope, Mrs. Sarff wouldn't have liked that much.
The first thing I thought when I saw that picture was, "Why is she naked in a tub of ice and water? Isn't she worried about frostbite?"
Post a Comment