Another Random Update

Life is good, but life is also busy. Here’s another mixed bag of updates….

Friday June 5th:

Very pleasant, very easy Friday morning run. It was raining. I got drenched. It was fun!

Saturday June 6th:

Ran the Equi-Kids 5k which turned out to be a lot of fun on a challenging, rain-soaked cross country course. My warm up was shorter than normal at 1.7 miles, but definitely gave me an idea of the terrain I’d be up against. Next challenge was choosing the correct shoe, of which I had three pairs to choose from – the Adidas Supernova Glide, Puma Trailfox and Nike Zoom Kennedy spike. I decided on the Trailfox (which I hadn’t worn since Muddy Buddy last July), but wished I had something more comfortable to wear – the Pumas were very stiff from laying around for 11 months….

The race was soon underway and I found myself in the middle of a pack of five; running comfortably and enjoying being in a race for a change. So many times this year I’ve found myself in 2nd or 3rd spot with no chance of catching the guy in front, and no fear of being caught by the guy behind. I felt good through the first mile (5:52), most of which was on the saturated grass but there was also a nice little stretch through a shady wooded area.

I still felt good at half way as we passed by the start area and headed out for the second loop. I pushed the pace a little, took the lead and reached two miles in 11:43. Almost immediately however, the speed in my legs seemed to disappear and the eventual race winner overtook me on the inside. Rob Dinterman, friendly rival from several races earlier this year, also passed me in his quest to track the leader. I urged Ron on and watched them draw away with every stride.

I dug deep, and held on as best I could for a 6:04 last mile and 18:38 3rd place finish. Not too bad considering the tough little cross country course. Thoroughly enjoyable race though…

Sunday June 7th:

Today’s run was surprisingly the longest since the Frederick Marathon 5 weeks ago and high time I did something further than a 10 miler. The weather was pleasant – not too hot and not too humid – and I ran within myself for the first six miles. At some random point in the seventh mile, something clicked and I decided to push the pace a little. Really it was just a question of letting the Newton running shoes take over. Enjoyable Sunday run in which I felt great the whole thirteen miles.

Splits: 8:09 7:36 7:34 7:33 7:39 7:23 7:22 7:08 7:09 6:48 6:46 6:27 7:03

Monday June 8th:

Easy 4.5 mile run to start the day. Wore my newer Newton Gravity shoes which I’m trying to “break into” at the moment. Nothing fast, just a leg-loosener for a mid-day hard effort.

Second run of the day – Royal Air Force Repeats taken from the “Running Tough” book (pictured left). The workout is a favorite of former world marathon record Steve Jones and is basically an easy warm up, followed by 4 x 5 minutes hard (preferably on grass) each with a 2 minute jog recovery, and finally a cool down.

I did pretty good despite the 83 °F temperature and covered the following distances in the 5 minute period:

1st effort = 0.82 mile
2nd effort = 0.83 mile
3rd effort = 0.85 mile
4th effort = 0.86 mile

I enjoyed the workout and will look to run faster and further next time around.

Think I’m all caught up again! By the way, Saturday is the CHKD 8k at Norfolk and I’m looking to taper slightly on Thursday/Friday in the hope of running a pretty quick time. My 8k best is a 28:59 set at the Neptune Festival 8k back in 2006. It would sweet to trim a few seconds off my time. We’ll see in a few days I guess…..