Easy Five

The goal of this run is to get out there, work out the kinks from Friday's run, and take it easy.  Mission accomplished.

One more three mile run on Wednesday (about the same pace) and then I'm done training for the mini.  The next week, I have 19 miles over three runs and then a week exactly like this week - 5, 3, half marathon race.

I'm Ready!

Compare this run with last year's 2:18:23 twelve mile run on Apr 30th.  Now, I reckon 8 minutes difference in a year is nothing to crow about, but I'm feelin' pretty good, regardless.

In fact, you don't even have to go back that far to find a run to compare it to; how about last Saturday's 2:15:38 twelve mile run?  5 minute improvement over a week, and that on a full stomach of half digested Indian food.  (Yes, I pretty much gorged myself at the Indian buffet...Oh...my belly....)

Five miles on Monday and three miles on Wednesday will complete my training for May 5's 500 Festival Mini Marathon.  I'm tellin' ya...I'm ready!

Fast Five

A couple of things about this run:

1.  I ran it an hour after dinner.  I'd rather run on an empty stomach or perhaps a little banana in my tummy, but I'd like not to have chowed down on salmon, rice, and mixed veggies.  Still, I felt ok about it.

2.  This five mile run was faster than my fastest five mile race.  I'd have to look through the archives to see if it's my fastest five ever; somehow I doubt it is.

3.  This is the last run (barring running for my life before midnight) before I officially enter my new age group: 45-49.  Yesssss!  I'll still be slow, but I'll be the faster slow person!

26 mph NNW winds = not fun

So, miles 2 and 5 were with the wind at my back; miles 3 and 6 were with the wind in my face...like a cheap thug.  Miles 1 and 4 were an even mixture of head, side, and tail winds.

I was going to make some valid excuse for not running a sub 10 minute mile for my last one, but I see that I didn't have to.  Yay!

12...miles....huff huff huff

So, two more miles at the same pace as last week's 10 miler.  I'm not sure if that's progress or not...that last mile was 2 seconds faster than my last (10th) mile last week, so I'm going to say, progress!

I have less mileage through the week and another 12 miler next Saturday.  Maybe I'll see more apparent progress then.

Two weeks until the 500 Festival Mini Marathon (billed as America's biggest half marathon.)  It's not too late to get airline tickets, hotel, and street side seating to cheer me on!  Or not...

Slow, easy 5 miler...but it didn't feel like it

I kinda ran out of gas after 3 miles. I didn't want to take this too fast as I have a 12 miler tomorrow. Remember, not all runs can be prime rib and lobster; sometimes you just get hamburger and catfish...

Faster Intervals!

With the exception of the first interval, every one of these intervals was faster than my intervals from last month. Now that's what I call progress!

As you can see, I took a little more time to recover between intervals, so I'm sure that contributed to my faster times, but we'll ignore that for the sake of my fragile ego.

I've got another 5 miler on Friday and a 12 miler on Saturday; then next week, I start my taper to my May 5th mini. I'll still run a 12 miler next Saturday, but my daily mileage will decrease.

Easy 8 miler...recovery run...really!

I was fairly sore for this run, but I managed to crank it up on that last mile. Sunny, 60's, and a stiff western breeze made for a somewhat enjoyable run.

Caring Parents Don't Shake 10K

We almost didn't get this race in due to weather (apparently, lightening does bad things to runners), but after about an hour and 10 minute delay, we got it started.

My father-in-law and I started in front of 40 other brave souls to make sure we had an accurate time; there were no timing chips; it was old school! I tried to stay out of everyone's way as they passed me; I think I saw 100 or so people pass me - including one dear lady with her walker.

My biggest struggle on this race was concentrating on running my race without getting caught up with running someone else's race. I had to remind myself over and over, as people either passed me or I saw them pull away, that I needed to focus on my goals:

1. At the very least, maintain 10 min miles.
2. Finish under an hour. This required <10 min miles, so I knew if I met this one, I'd meet number 1.
3. Keep running; don't walk or stop!
4. Don't die. This one can be complicated as we usually aren't in control of when this happens, but as I'm writing this now, I can say, "Mission Accomplished for #4."

I can say, as I've already said for #4, "Mission Accomplished!" I did have my pace alarms set for 10 min too slow, and 9 min too fast, so that helped a lot.

I ran my guts out for the last tenth to finish under 59 minutes; I tend to get loud when I run hard, so I had everyone's attention when I finished......

Coulda, woulda, shoulda: If this race had been run just 12 days from now, I would have placed first in my age group. There were no male participants aged 45-49.

As it was, I placed 5th in my age group...out of 5. I also placed 29th overall out of 42. In contrast, my father-in-law placed 1st in his age group out of 3 and 12th overall with a 47:38.

Once again, I am very encouraged by this race! My 4 mile split time was 38:14, which is nearly two minutes faster than my race time last month! I have real hope that I can maintain 10 min miles for my upcoming mini on May 5th.

ZOOOOOOM!!!!

How do you like those last two miles?! Of course, they just made up for the first two miles, but still, I'm likin' what I'm seein'. Now for two days off and then a 10K. Wish me luck!

Another windy run

A nice run over all. Yeah, I think that speedy last mile is something I'm going to try to keep up.

28 miles for the week

Ten miles in the bag. It was very nice out - sunny, a slight breeze, just around 60 degrees. Thankfully, I remembered to take it slow! I set a "too fast" pace alarm at 10:30 to alert me, and it worked like a charm.

I really wanted to see if I could run a 10 min mile at the end, so I pushed it pretty hard. I'm glad I had enough in the tank to do it. Downing the GU at mile 5 sure helped out as well as switching from water to Gatorade at mile 6. Although, I'm not sure I like the sticky residue that Gatorade leaves in my mouth while I run; water is much better for keeping my mouth non-sticky.

So, next Saturday is my 10K race; I'll do a 7 miler on Monday and a 5 miler on Wednesday. Then, I'll take two glorious days off before the race. Yippee!!

Easy 3 miles? No such thing.

I should have pushed it harder on the first mile, but poor little Denali wasn't too keen on keeping up. Of course, that was my warmup also, so it behooves me to take it slower.

Tomorrow is the big 10 miler. Coach just saw fit to skip nine and jump right to 10 from 8. Or, maybe he learned to count while he was in the army. shrug.

A more consistent run, however...

...it was at a slower pace. I did not feel out of breath or like my legs were going to fall off this run. Thank goodness!

After the fiasco on Monday, I really wanted to finish all 7 miles without stopping. I did stop at mile 1 to drop off Denali (her little legs would fall off if I made her run the whole 7 miles), but other than that, I didn't have to stop. It was also much cooler today than on Monday, so I had that going for me.

I've got 10 days until my next race - a 10K. My coach is going to run in the same race, and I'm hoping that I can run under double his time!

The April Fool

As you can see, I'm making a habit out of starting out too fast, and in this run, I really paid for it on those last three miles.

I had to stop by the house at mile 2 to take the chicken out of the oven, and the rest of the run deteriorated from there. I ended up stopping at mile 5.35 because I just couldn't go any further. My legs were weak, I was out of breath, I was a mess.

So, I did some stretching, drank some water, and got myself together, then I slowly finished my run. It was a bit difficult to run past my house at mile 6 to tackle the two mile loop again, but I did.

At dinner, my wife asked me if I ate anything before the run (I didn't) and it dawned on me that I should have scarfed some GU at mile 4! *headsmack* Well, for Saturday's 10 miler, I'll definitely be getting some sort of gel pack to eat around mile 5!