I can't think of much to write about today that will be amusing. I ran an easy five yesterday morning in 41:27 with splits of 8:23, 8:23, 8:11, 8:12 and 8:18. It got a little warm the last 3 miles because the nice 14 mph wind from the South was at my back and it was 78 with 78% humidity and the sun was beating down. I was happy to finish up yesterday.
This morning I ran a tempo run. I ran a mile warm up in 8:33 and stretched a bit. My new tempo pace associated with my VDOT is 6:44. I started my three mile tempo with a 6:45.19 mile and then hit mile two in 6:44.17. Mile three was covered in 6:45.76 and then I ran a cool-down mile in 8:35. I felt pretty good and didn't strain too much, it was comfortably hard like it was supposed to be.
Last night Kim and I watched "Black Snake Moan" with Samuel L. Jackson and a nymphomaniac Christina Ricci who showed an awful lot of skin during the course of the film. It was a pretty good movie with a GREAT soundtrack and a nice performance by Jackson. I don't usually care for him too much most of the time because he always seems to be playing his character from "Pulp Fiction".
Jackson's character has just had his wife run out on him with his younger brother and finds Ricci's character, beat up and unconscious, on the side of the road in a semi-nude state. He takes her into his house where he takes care of her because she has pneumonia and is feverish. She keeps having nightmares about childhood abuse and wandering around the house and after she comes on to Jackson during one of her episodes he chains her to the radiator.
I'll just leave it at that for now. It sounds like a bizarre movie, and it is, but I highly recommend it.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Monday, July 9, 2007
4 x 1000
I got up this morning at 0530 and ran 4 x 1000 at the track. It was 73 with 73% humidity and winds SW 4 mph. I ran a mile warm-up in 8:19 and a mile of strides in 7:55. I took a few minutes to stretch out and started the meat of my workout. The goal today was to run each repeat in 3:51 and jog 600 meters for a recovery between reps.
#1. 3:51.98 (3:30.33)
#2. 3:51.93 (3:36.44)
#3. 3:50.62 (3:37.38)
#4. 3:50.75 (1:13.01 200m. jog back to starting point)
I felt pretty good throughout the workout and didn't get any of the shoulder tightness that has plagued me for the last few weeks. I was reading an article about Emil Zatopek and he always ran with his thumbs lightly pressed against his index or middle fingers as he ran to keep his upper body relaxed. I have been doing it for the last week or so and it seems to help. It might just be in my head but I didn't fall apart at the Premier Bank 5k and I felt pretty relaxed today so I'm going to continue doing it.
Tomorrow I am going to run an easy five and hope it doesn't rain so we can take Nathan to the water park for his birthday. We have to wrap his last few presents tonight so we can surprise him tomorrow. Little kids are fun because it doesn't take much to surprise them.
We watched "Bridge to Terebithia" last night and it was just as sad at the age of 29 as it was when I was 10 and read the book. My allergies started bothering me towards the end and I got something in my eye but I'm okay now. Tonight we're going to watch "Norbet" or whatever it is with Eddie Murphy in the fat woman suit. If it sucks I'll post it on the blog.
#1. 3:51.98 (3:30.33)
#2. 3:51.93 (3:36.44)
#3. 3:50.62 (3:37.38)
#4. 3:50.75 (1:13.01 200m. jog back to starting point)
I felt pretty good throughout the workout and didn't get any of the shoulder tightness that has plagued me for the last few weeks. I was reading an article about Emil Zatopek and he always ran with his thumbs lightly pressed against his index or middle fingers as he ran to keep his upper body relaxed. I have been doing it for the last week or so and it seems to help. It might just be in my head but I didn't fall apart at the Premier Bank 5k and I felt pretty relaxed today so I'm going to continue doing it.
Tomorrow I am going to run an easy five and hope it doesn't rain so we can take Nathan to the water park for his birthday. We have to wrap his last few presents tonight so we can surprise him tomorrow. Little kids are fun because it doesn't take much to surprise them.
We watched "Bridge to Terebithia" last night and it was just as sad at the age of 29 as it was when I was 10 and read the book. My allergies started bothering me towards the end and I got something in my eye but I'm okay now. Tonight we're going to watch "Norbet" or whatever it is with Eddie Murphy in the fat woman suit. If it sucks I'll post it on the blog.
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Partying
Since my last post my house has been busy. Thursday we left Nathan at daycare so we could go get him birthday presents. I got him a Fisher Price dumptruck just like the one I had when I was little. We also got him a tent that is shaped like Thomas the Tank Engine, a choo-choo train that you put shapes into, a "pop-corn popper" push toy that counts and a Sesame St. TV remote that sings and counts and does other things that will probably annoy us about 15 minutes after we take it out of the box. Needless to say, we didn't buy extra batteries.
Friday was spent sweeping, mopping, dusting and carpet shampooing. Saturday afternoon we had Nathan's first birthday party with friends and assorted family members. We celebrated a few days early because the actual day is Tuesday and we didn't think family would have wanted to drive down from Peoria on a week night. Nathan got a bunch of cool clothes, balls, beach toys, books and a Thomas the Tank Engine toy that he can sit on and push around. It makes whistling and tooting noises and also plays the theme song to the TV show. Of course the song button is his favorite one to push and I'm sure everyone who attended the party has found themselves humming, whistling or singing (if they know the words) the tune.
"They're two, they're four, they're six, they're eight.
While something something or hauling freight
Something something something something
Its Thomas and his friends!"
It really annoys me because I know just enough of the words to get it stuck in an infinity loop but not enough to knock it off.
Friday morning I got up and ran a ten mile run on the bike trail and felt pretty good two days after the race. I took it easy on the way out to the turnaround point and covered the first five in 41:38. I picked it up only a bit on the way back in and ran the last five in 40:39. I finished in 1:22:18 and felt pretty good but slightly dehydrated.
Saturday morning I ran an easy six in 50:12 after getting off to a sluggish start. I hit my splits in 8:49, 8:31, 8:25, 8:17, 8:06 and 8:04. I started daydreaming the last two and let myself go.
Today I think I'm going to take a bike ride and maybe do some yoga or the core secrets workout.
I found the results to the Premier Bank 5k I ran on Wednesday and after looking at them for a minute I think that they left someone out ahead of me. I was given an official time of 19:42 and Yellow Shorts and the Bionic Woman were in the two spots ahead of me but Yellow Shorts was given a time of 19:30 and he only passed me the last 300-400 meters of the race and didn't get 12 seconds ahead of me. The Bionic Woman kicked my butt but didn't kick to the tune of 34 seconds. I think that there was either a bandit or a finishing tag was dropped between the chute and the scoring computer. Results are here.
This is the last week of my vacation and I have no idea what we're going to do. I'm going to get a few good workouts in and finish repairing my popped nails. I think Kim wants to go see the new Harry Potter movie too.
Friday was spent sweeping, mopping, dusting and carpet shampooing. Saturday afternoon we had Nathan's first birthday party with friends and assorted family members. We celebrated a few days early because the actual day is Tuesday and we didn't think family would have wanted to drive down from Peoria on a week night. Nathan got a bunch of cool clothes, balls, beach toys, books and a Thomas the Tank Engine toy that he can sit on and push around. It makes whistling and tooting noises and also plays the theme song to the TV show. Of course the song button is his favorite one to push and I'm sure everyone who attended the party has found themselves humming, whistling or singing (if they know the words) the tune.
"They're two, they're four, they're six, they're eight.
While something something or hauling freight
Something something something something
Its Thomas and his friends!"
It really annoys me because I know just enough of the words to get it stuck in an infinity loop but not enough to knock it off.
Friday morning I got up and ran a ten mile run on the bike trail and felt pretty good two days after the race. I took it easy on the way out to the turnaround point and covered the first five in 41:38. I picked it up only a bit on the way back in and ran the last five in 40:39. I finished in 1:22:18 and felt pretty good but slightly dehydrated.
Saturday morning I ran an easy six in 50:12 after getting off to a sluggish start. I hit my splits in 8:49, 8:31, 8:25, 8:17, 8:06 and 8:04. I started daydreaming the last two and let myself go.
Today I think I'm going to take a bike ride and maybe do some yoga or the core secrets workout.
I found the results to the Premier Bank 5k I ran on Wednesday and after looking at them for a minute I think that they left someone out ahead of me. I was given an official time of 19:42 and Yellow Shorts and the Bionic Woman were in the two spots ahead of me but Yellow Shorts was given a time of 19:30 and he only passed me the last 300-400 meters of the race and didn't get 12 seconds ahead of me. The Bionic Woman kicked my butt but didn't kick to the tune of 34 seconds. I think that there was either a bandit or a finishing tag was dropped between the chute and the scoring computer. Results are here.
This is the last week of my vacation and I have no idea what we're going to do. I'm going to get a few good workouts in and finish repairing my popped nails. I think Kim wants to go see the new Harry Potter movie too.
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Premier Bank 5k
I got up this morning at 0545 with my son and we ate breakfast and played until I left the house at 0700 to get to Jacksonville after having run a mile warm-up in the sub-division. I'm glad I ran that mile because I didn't get there until about twenty 'til eight and had to register, use the restroom and change into my flats. I ran to each destination and got a slight warm-up that way and did a few strides at the starting line. I was sweating at that point and I figured that with temps in the low 70s and humidity that was also in the 70% range I was warmed up pretty well. I was wrong.
The gun went off and Coach C. and I ran together for most of the first mile until he fell off the pace. I felt pretty stiff and dead in my legs and eased into my race and hit the first mile slightly behind Joy (hereby referred to as the "Bionic Woman") in 6:27.78. It sure didn't feel like I had run that slow so I sped up and started to pass people. I 3-4 people the second mile and hit two in 13:15.45 with a 6:47.67 split still within 2-3 seconds of the Bionic Woman. I was in contact with a strung out group of about five people and I started picking them off as the Bionic Woman started surging and building up a lead on me. I kept the turnover going and started surging at every other phone pole until I hit what I figured to be the half mile to go point. I passed my pal Matt, who wasn't having a good day, and caught a few high school kids. I had been dueling with a guy in yellow shorts most of the last mile and I thought I broke him but he passed me with about 400 to go and I couldn't run him down again. I clicked my watch at the starting line, which I figured to be in the area of the three mile mark, and passed it in 19:20.98 with a mile split of 6:05.53. I'm pretty sure I didn't run a 6:05 mile. I ran the last bit of the race in 26.00 and didn't vomit which tells me that I was no where near the three mile mark when I took the split because a 26.00 induces involuntary evacuation of the stomach 100% of the time. I ran into the finish chute and stopped my watch at 19:46.98. Not bad for feeling tired.
I ran a 14 minute cool-down with the Bionic Woman and a few other people from the Club as we waited for the results to come up. The Bionic Woman won the women's race with an official time of 19:18, which was about 10-11 seconds faster than what she had timed herself at. She had one of those Polar pedometer things on and it measured the course out at 3.14 (pi!). Nyle got 3.06 on his and someone else got 3.20 on theirs. I ended up winning my age group with an official time of 19:32 (at least that's what I think he said). And Yellow Shorts won his age group in 19:30. Ironically, I beat Yellow Shorts at Scholastic by about a second and he returned the favor today.
Coach placed second in his age group with a time of 20:48 but left before the awards.
I feel good about the race. I gave a pretty even effort and only got passed by two people (Bionic Woman and Yellow Shorts) and I passed close to ten or more the last two miles of the race. I didn't wimp out the last mile and I pushed myself right up into that discomfort zone and to the edge of regurgitation. The last time I ran this race was in 2004, and it was my very first race after four years of nothing. I finished it in 23:26 and took almost FOUR minutes off that time today. I'm pretty happy about that.
The gun went off and Coach C. and I ran together for most of the first mile until he fell off the pace. I felt pretty stiff and dead in my legs and eased into my race and hit the first mile slightly behind Joy (hereby referred to as the "Bionic Woman") in 6:27.78. It sure didn't feel like I had run that slow so I sped up and started to pass people. I 3-4 people the second mile and hit two in 13:15.45 with a 6:47.67 split still within 2-3 seconds of the Bionic Woman. I was in contact with a strung out group of about five people and I started picking them off as the Bionic Woman started surging and building up a lead on me. I kept the turnover going and started surging at every other phone pole until I hit what I figured to be the half mile to go point. I passed my pal Matt, who wasn't having a good day, and caught a few high school kids. I had been dueling with a guy in yellow shorts most of the last mile and I thought I broke him but he passed me with about 400 to go and I couldn't run him down again. I clicked my watch at the starting line, which I figured to be in the area of the three mile mark, and passed it in 19:20.98 with a mile split of 6:05.53. I'm pretty sure I didn't run a 6:05 mile. I ran the last bit of the race in 26.00 and didn't vomit which tells me that I was no where near the three mile mark when I took the split because a 26.00 induces involuntary evacuation of the stomach 100% of the time. I ran into the finish chute and stopped my watch at 19:46.98. Not bad for feeling tired.
I ran a 14 minute cool-down with the Bionic Woman and a few other people from the Club as we waited for the results to come up. The Bionic Woman won the women's race with an official time of 19:18, which was about 10-11 seconds faster than what she had timed herself at. She had one of those Polar pedometer things on and it measured the course out at 3.14 (pi!). Nyle got 3.06 on his and someone else got 3.20 on theirs. I ended up winning my age group with an official time of 19:32 (at least that's what I think he said). And Yellow Shorts won his age group in 19:30. Ironically, I beat Yellow Shorts at Scholastic by about a second and he returned the favor today.
Coach placed second in his age group with a time of 20:48 but left before the awards.
I feel good about the race. I gave a pretty even effort and only got passed by two people (Bionic Woman and Yellow Shorts) and I passed close to ten or more the last two miles of the race. I didn't wimp out the last mile and I pushed myself right up into that discomfort zone and to the edge of regurgitation. The last time I ran this race was in 2004, and it was my very first race after four years of nothing. I finished it in 23:26 and took almost FOUR minutes off that time today. I'm pretty happy about that.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Not to be outdone...
I took a few pictures at Washington Park when I went there Monday with my wife and son. I think the one with the Carillon in the background turned out pretty well. I have no idea what type of settings or shutter speed I used. All I know is that I set it for foliage when I shot the flowers and for outdoors when I did the Carillon.
Vacation
I started my vacation Saturday after leaving work that afternoon. I will be going back on July 16th and plan to do very little while I am off. I have been hanging out with my wife and son and reading, playing and napping the last few days.
I have been running a bit but have been taking it easy and getting in some easy miles. Since I wrote last I ran a 10.25 mile run on Friday morning before work in 1:24:18. I ran it a bit faster than my VDOT says to because I was running out of time to get it done and ran the first five in 8:31 pace and the last five in 7:55 pace. I ran a little more relaxed Saturday afternoon covering 5.25 miles in 44:06 or 8:24 pace.
I took Sunday off to play with my boy and mess around.
Monday morning I got up with Nathan and we played, ate some breakfast and watched a little TV until Kim got up. After she woke up and took over for me I ran a six mile run in 50:31 and then did the 20 minute Yoga for Regular Guys workout with Diamond Dallas Page to loosen up my back.
This morning I ran an easy three in 25:04 and then repaired a few of the popped nails that have been annoying me for the last month or so. I have a textured ceiling and I can't seem to get the texture right so my ceiling looks like a rank amateur did the repairs, which I guess is what I am. It doesn't look too bad but it could be better.
After that, we all went to order a cake for Nathan's 1st birthday party this weekend and then we went to Kohls where I bought a few new pair of shorts. Then we went home and Nathan and I took naps.
Tomorrow I am going to run the Premier Bank 5k in Jacksonville. I'm not expecting to run too terribly fast because it doesn't look like it is going to be a great day. Conditions will be similar to the Scholastic Challenge (upper 60s) but the course isn't as shady and there is a chance of a thunderstorm. I'm not feeling rested up for this race, I think that June was a rough month with all the racing and hard training I did, and I'm feeling a little run down. I still think I can run 10-20 seconds faster than I did at Scholastic but I'm not sure when I'm going to do it. Havana maybe?
Coming up on July 25th is the Sizzling Mile during which I think I can run 5:25 or so. I ran 5:36 in practice last year and I know, based on race performances and my first mile split from Scholastic, that I can blow that away.
Thirteen days afer the Sizzling Mile is the Parade Run 2 mile where I am hoping to dip under 12:00 for the first time since 1999 when I ran a two mile split, in the last 5k I ran for five years, in 11:40. I don't think I'll be able to run quite that fast but I think I can squeak under by a few seconds.
Race plan for tomorrow: Mile one in 6:10-6:15. Two mile split under 12:30. Last 1.1 in under 7:00. Not much of a plan but burning the first two as hard as I can and trying to survive the last 1.1 sounds like it will hurt pretty bad. I've done it before but it isn't a smart strategy.
I have been running a bit but have been taking it easy and getting in some easy miles. Since I wrote last I ran a 10.25 mile run on Friday morning before work in 1:24:18. I ran it a bit faster than my VDOT says to because I was running out of time to get it done and ran the first five in 8:31 pace and the last five in 7:55 pace. I ran a little more relaxed Saturday afternoon covering 5.25 miles in 44:06 or 8:24 pace.
I took Sunday off to play with my boy and mess around.
Monday morning I got up with Nathan and we played, ate some breakfast and watched a little TV until Kim got up. After she woke up and took over for me I ran a six mile run in 50:31 and then did the 20 minute Yoga for Regular Guys workout with Diamond Dallas Page to loosen up my back.
This morning I ran an easy three in 25:04 and then repaired a few of the popped nails that have been annoying me for the last month or so. I have a textured ceiling and I can't seem to get the texture right so my ceiling looks like a rank amateur did the repairs, which I guess is what I am. It doesn't look too bad but it could be better.
After that, we all went to order a cake for Nathan's 1st birthday party this weekend and then we went to Kohls where I bought a few new pair of shorts. Then we went home and Nathan and I took naps.
Tomorrow I am going to run the Premier Bank 5k in Jacksonville. I'm not expecting to run too terribly fast because it doesn't look like it is going to be a great day. Conditions will be similar to the Scholastic Challenge (upper 60s) but the course isn't as shady and there is a chance of a thunderstorm. I'm not feeling rested up for this race, I think that June was a rough month with all the racing and hard training I did, and I'm feeling a little run down. I still think I can run 10-20 seconds faster than I did at Scholastic but I'm not sure when I'm going to do it. Havana maybe?
Coming up on July 25th is the Sizzling Mile during which I think I can run 5:25 or so. I ran 5:36 in practice last year and I know, based on race performances and my first mile split from Scholastic, that I can blow that away.
Thirteen days afer the Sizzling Mile is the Parade Run 2 mile where I am hoping to dip under 12:00 for the first time since 1999 when I ran a two mile split, in the last 5k I ran for five years, in 11:40. I don't think I'll be able to run quite that fast but I think I can squeak under by a few seconds.
Race plan for tomorrow: Mile one in 6:10-6:15. Two mile split under 12:30. Last 1.1 in under 7:00. Not much of a plan but burning the first two as hard as I can and trying to survive the last 1.1 sounds like it will hurt pretty bad. I've done it before but it isn't a smart strategy.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Adjusting
I adjusted my VDOT training intensities this week based on my race this weekend. I only moved up a level to 51 but it is still a bit of a jump. My easy runs are supposed to be done at 8:24 pace, with tempo runs at 6:44 (which I was pretty much doing anyway), and so on.
I ran an easy five miler on Monday after taking Sunday off to recover. It was 67 with 93% humidity that morning and to make matters worse, I slept wrong. I still ran my five in 41:51 which is actually more like 8:22 pace and due to sleeping wrong my upper back was sore all day until I did some yoga poses in my office and was able to get it to pop. I think I almost screamed when it went. That would have scared some people for sure.
I hit my splits in 8:35, 8:23, 8:20, 8:23 and 8:10. Even though I remeasured my five mile loop a few weeks ago on my bike I still think that the fifth mile is short. Maybe I'm forgetting where the hell the four mile mark is because the dead tree that was the marker has been removed and the hole where it used to be is overgrown with brush. I think I'm going to have to remeasure again when I'm on vacation just to make sure I'm not actually running 4.97 miles or something, god forbid. I get pretty obsessive when it comes to having accurately measured courses.
I was going to get up Tuesday morning to run 3x1200 on the track but didn't feel like it so I did it Tuesday night after work. I warmed up with a mile in 8:17 and a mile of strides that I didn't bother to time. It was 81 with 72% humidity and winds SSE 12 mph. It wasn't a fun practice.
I usually like practices with longer repeats of 800 to 1600 but last nights 1200 about killed me. I think part of the reason was that I ran them slightly faster than my 5k pace from three days earlier. I was supposed to run my 1200s in 4:36. I did a pretty good job of staying on that pace for all of them.
I hit my first one almost perfectly in 4:35.77. I was spot-on at 400, 600, 800 and 1000 but I kicked it in just a little to aggressively the last 200. I ran 600 meters for recovery in 3:37.96 and hit my second 1200 in 4:36.74. I hit my splits slightly behind until the 1000 where I was on pace. Staying on pace for that one hurt and I could feel my shoulders starting to tighten up. I jogged another 600 and gave myself a few seconds to catch my breath before I ran rep three. I covered my 600 plus breather in 4:01.12.
My last 1200 was an exercise in running through extreme discomfort. At this point in the practice my shoulders were wound tighter than a magnet's coil (thank you Lou Barlow for that simile), the humidity was preventing me from cooling down I and I was ready to be done. I started off my rep and was immediately two seconds slow at the 200 and stayed that way all the way to 1000 where I made myself push just to make sure I ran slightly faster than I needed to. There is still that part of me that hates to have my last rep be slower than the ones that preceded it even if it is only slower by a few tenths of a second. I hit my last rep, the fastest of the three, in 4:35.48. Upon finishing I promptly sat down on the track and didn't move again for a good five minutes before I got up and ran a cool-down mile in 8:16.
I intended to get up this morning at 0430 to do a five mile recovery run but Nathan had a bad case of angry insomnia last night and no one slept well. After picking my lovely son up from daycare I ran my five in 41:44 with splits of 8:21, 8:23, 16:49 (forgot to hit my split at three miles), and 8:11. I'm pretty sure that mile four is long and mile five is short because of mile 4 being long. I didn't check the Weather Channel before I left but I'm pretty sure it was in the high 70s with upwards of 70% humidity and a bit of a WSW wind blowing around 5-7 mph. Just guessing though.
Upon further reflection of my race Saturday I have determined that I crashed hard on mile three because I hadn't run my own race the previous two miles. I was more worried about staying in contact with Tim and Joy and abandoned my race plan. I think that if I had been five seconds slower at the mile mark and had hit the two mile in a tick or two over 12:20 I would have been in good position to stay closer to my aforementioned competitors. A ten second improvement isn't anything to shake a stick at, but I still think I was capable of running much faster.
Tomorrow is a rest day, Friday will be an easy five again and Saturday will be a ten miler.
I ran an easy five miler on Monday after taking Sunday off to recover. It was 67 with 93% humidity that morning and to make matters worse, I slept wrong. I still ran my five in 41:51 which is actually more like 8:22 pace and due to sleeping wrong my upper back was sore all day until I did some yoga poses in my office and was able to get it to pop. I think I almost screamed when it went. That would have scared some people for sure.
I hit my splits in 8:35, 8:23, 8:20, 8:23 and 8:10. Even though I remeasured my five mile loop a few weeks ago on my bike I still think that the fifth mile is short. Maybe I'm forgetting where the hell the four mile mark is because the dead tree that was the marker has been removed and the hole where it used to be is overgrown with brush. I think I'm going to have to remeasure again when I'm on vacation just to make sure I'm not actually running 4.97 miles or something, god forbid. I get pretty obsessive when it comes to having accurately measured courses.
I was going to get up Tuesday morning to run 3x1200 on the track but didn't feel like it so I did it Tuesday night after work. I warmed up with a mile in 8:17 and a mile of strides that I didn't bother to time. It was 81 with 72% humidity and winds SSE 12 mph. It wasn't a fun practice.
I usually like practices with longer repeats of 800 to 1600 but last nights 1200 about killed me. I think part of the reason was that I ran them slightly faster than my 5k pace from three days earlier. I was supposed to run my 1200s in 4:36. I did a pretty good job of staying on that pace for all of them.
I hit my first one almost perfectly in 4:35.77. I was spot-on at 400, 600, 800 and 1000 but I kicked it in just a little to aggressively the last 200. I ran 600 meters for recovery in 3:37.96 and hit my second 1200 in 4:36.74. I hit my splits slightly behind until the 1000 where I was on pace. Staying on pace for that one hurt and I could feel my shoulders starting to tighten up. I jogged another 600 and gave myself a few seconds to catch my breath before I ran rep three. I covered my 600 plus breather in 4:01.12.
My last 1200 was an exercise in running through extreme discomfort. At this point in the practice my shoulders were wound tighter than a magnet's coil (thank you Lou Barlow for that simile), the humidity was preventing me from cooling down I and I was ready to be done. I started off my rep and was immediately two seconds slow at the 200 and stayed that way all the way to 1000 where I made myself push just to make sure I ran slightly faster than I needed to. There is still that part of me that hates to have my last rep be slower than the ones that preceded it even if it is only slower by a few tenths of a second. I hit my last rep, the fastest of the three, in 4:35.48. Upon finishing I promptly sat down on the track and didn't move again for a good five minutes before I got up and ran a cool-down mile in 8:16.
I intended to get up this morning at 0430 to do a five mile recovery run but Nathan had a bad case of angry insomnia last night and no one slept well. After picking my lovely son up from daycare I ran my five in 41:44 with splits of 8:21, 8:23, 16:49 (forgot to hit my split at three miles), and 8:11. I'm pretty sure that mile four is long and mile five is short because of mile 4 being long. I didn't check the Weather Channel before I left but I'm pretty sure it was in the high 70s with upwards of 70% humidity and a bit of a WSW wind blowing around 5-7 mph. Just guessing though.
Upon further reflection of my race Saturday I have determined that I crashed hard on mile three because I hadn't run my own race the previous two miles. I was more worried about staying in contact with Tim and Joy and abandoned my race plan. I think that if I had been five seconds slower at the mile mark and had hit the two mile in a tick or two over 12:20 I would have been in good position to stay closer to my aforementioned competitors. A ten second improvement isn't anything to shake a stick at, but I still think I was capable of running much faster.
Tomorrow is a rest day, Friday will be an easy five again and Saturday will be a ten miler.
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