My wife and I took a trip to West Palm Beach, Florida for our fifth anniversary this past weekend. We stayed at the Resort on Singer Island for three nights and ate lots of rich food, drank lots of beer, wine and spirits and frolicked on the beach. We had a good time but missed Nathan quite a bit by Sunday afternoon.
I managed to get a few short runs in while we were there. I ran from our hotel to the bridge that went over to the mainland and back which was distance of about three miles. The bridge was steep. I'll put some pictures up later.
Yesterday after work I ran six miles in 49:15. My original intent was to run eight but it was too damn hot and I just wasn't feeling it. This morning I got up at 0430 and ran another six miles in 48:22. Yesterday I couldn't seem to run any faster than 8:10 pace but this morning, due to cooler temps and better hydration, I was able to run splits of 8:35 (I wasn't awake yet), 8:16, 8:20, 7:59, 7:48 and 7:23. I closed out a bit fast to knock the rust off for my 10K on Saturday.
I'm running the Passavant/Powerade 10K in Jacksonville. I like the race as it is a reasonably fast course with enough roll to it to make you change tempo but not enough to knock you off stride as long as you didn't go out too fast. The only problem with the course is that it is out in the open with no cover and it gets hot when the sun is out. They're predicting highs of 83 with sunny conditions on Saturday so I'm guessing that by 0830 it will be in the high-60s or low-70s.
Quite a few people from the SRRC are running a biathlon Saturday instead of the 10K so it will be a good opportunity for me to earn some points in the Series. I don't think that the lack of SRRC members is going to slow the race down too much and I'm not expecting my run of top-five finishes in races to continue. I would like to run 41:00 or better but with the extra weight I picked up in Florida beating my 42:15 from last year would make me happy.
Back in February I ran a five mile tempo run at 6:52 pace. I'm sure that 42:15 will be no problem.
I'm going to go out on a limb and predict 41:10.
I hope I'm right, I don't want to make an ass of myself.
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8 comments:
Good luck. I don't know if I've ever even been to Jacksonville, but I've always imagined it as the extraordinarily flat place... probably because the times were always so fast on there high school XC course.
The course isn't too bad. There are a few hills but they're long and gradual. It is a faster course than Abe's Amble but I don't imagine that many people circle it on their calendar as the race they want to peak at.
I went to college with two pretty good Jacksonville runners, Will Swain and Brian Scott. Will moved down here in 2003 or so. I saw him at a Mexican restaurant one night.
I remember Will Swain. He was pretty good. He still holds the 1600 record at the Capitol Area Classic which is Springfield's version of the Honor Roll Meet.
Dude ran like 1:50 and change for the 800 in college, I think. He might have done low 3:50s for the 1500 also. Very bright too. I took Advanced Organic Chemistry with him maybe my junior year. To this day, I have no idea what the heck we were supposed to learn in that class.
41:26. Stick to your race pace the 1st 2 miles, mile 3 and 4 is where you have the slightly downhill to flat to slightly uphill out & back stretch. Make your move somewhere in there.
And the reson the J'ville XC course was always so fast was b/c it was 2.97 miles, not a full 3.
I had a 15:45 pr there. -Matt M.
BTW I will not be there to watch you run faster than me, Aaron, so good luck.
Thanks for the race advice Matt. Is 41:26 your prediction for me? Now I REALLY have to run my predicted time!
I imagine you ran against Will Swain quite a bit in high school didn't Matt. Being an SHG guy and all.
Any stories?
Aaron, you forget I'm an old fogie. I think Will is a few years younger - Lance Scott, Kevin (damn, can't think of his last name - went to Knox College) were their 2 best in my day.
My favorite Jacksonville race story was running against Lance Scott in the 800 at their track and holding him off the last 100 meters by zigzagging to cut him off. His coach was furious and confronted me right after the finish - Lance really didn't seem bothered by it. At the time I didn't even think that I'd done anything against the rules. Actually right after that my coach had me run the 400 meters (in HS they are amost back-to-back) and I ran something awful like a 1:07.
MM
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