I feel more satisfied with this race, pretty much exclusively because I was able to hold myself back from going out too fast. A group of maybe 5-7 or so guys were about 50 yards ahead of a group of 4-5 I was in with 2 guys in the middle ground. I wanted to go with the 2 guys in the middle but I knew that they would post times that I simply am not capable of yet so I held back and maintained a steady effort through the first mile. Around mile 1.5 or so there was a short but steep climb and everyone in my group was suddenly gone. I know I didn't hit the hill hard but jeez. So I ended up having to run by myself for the second half of the race, which really sucked. I'm pretty positive I could have gone 10-15 seconds faster just by having people around me or close in front of me. The 2 guys that were ahead of my group were about 30-45 seconds ahead so that wasn't nearly close enough to really egg me on, unfortunately. I never looked behind me because I knew it would piss me off or make me sad, depending on how close or far away the people behind me were. Nobody did actually pass me though and when I got to the mile 3 marker I laid down a pretty hard kick that was the only time during the race where I think I was just completely out of breath. I did the last .1 miles very fast, which was pretty sweet but I know I left something out there on the course. Oh well, next time.
Splits: 1-5:40, 2-11:15, 3- 17:08, 17:45 chip time for 10th place overall.
▼
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Friday, April 25, 2008
Race tomorrow
Race tomorrow!
Both excited and nervous, because I've been feeling pretty slow lately. I know that technically I should be faster, if not a good bit faster than I was both at Shamrock (4 miler) and in Athens (5k).
The 5k in Athens was an anomaly I think and I'm not taking my time there seriously because of the odd conditions in which I ran it (got 'lost,' slow start, hilly, etc).
So hopefully tomorrow I will prove to myself that I am, in fact, making improvements. We'll see how it goes.
It's hot here finally (80 today). As much as it can suck at times, I love warm weather. We've had some gorgeous days here in Charlotte this past week.
Both excited and nervous, because I've been feeling pretty slow lately. I know that technically I should be faster, if not a good bit faster than I was both at Shamrock (4 miler) and in Athens (5k).
The 5k in Athens was an anomaly I think and I'm not taking my time there seriously because of the odd conditions in which I ran it (got 'lost,' slow start, hilly, etc).
So hopefully tomorrow I will prove to myself that I am, in fact, making improvements. We'll see how it goes.
It's hot here finally (80 today). As much as it can suck at times, I love warm weather. We've had some gorgeous days here in Charlotte this past week.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Boston Marathon
Following today's Boston Marathon has made me insanely jealous. I NEED to do a marathon at some point this year. The bug has completely bit. Right now I'm obviously not in the right shape to start actually training for a marathon that would likely come later this fall but hopefully in the next couple of months I can maintain the decent base I've built these past 3.5 months. The longest run I've done is still just 16 miles (one on the roads and one on trails) so that will certainly need to be increased.
My pipe dream time for a relatively flat marathon would be sub 3; preferably closer to around 2:55ish. That's just under 7min/mi pace.
Running has been going well; I've been alternating higher mileage weeks with 2 lower mileage weeks to make sure that I don't overtrain or injure myself. As I start to get more and more used to running 40+ miles a week I think I'll begin upping my mileage. Right now there are only 5ks and 4 milers on the horizon so 60-70 mile weeks are kind of pointless. I feel pretty fast right now, even when compared to just a month or so ago.
I'm running the CPCC Skyline 5k run this Saturday with the goal of going under 18. I had the same goal before the last 5k in Athens but it was both uncompetitive and hilly. This one will be neither of those, I think. So we'll see how it goes.
My pipe dream time for a relatively flat marathon would be sub 3; preferably closer to around 2:55ish. That's just under 7min/mi pace.
Running has been going well; I've been alternating higher mileage weeks with 2 lower mileage weeks to make sure that I don't overtrain or injure myself. As I start to get more and more used to running 40+ miles a week I think I'll begin upping my mileage. Right now there are only 5ks and 4 milers on the horizon so 60-70 mile weeks are kind of pointless. I feel pretty fast right now, even when compared to just a month or so ago.
I'm running the CPCC Skyline 5k run this Saturday with the goal of going under 18. I had the same goal before the last 5k in Athens but it was both uncompetitive and hilly. This one will be neither of those, I think. So we'll see how it goes.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Fatigue
Latroy Hawkins sucks.
My big mileage week (for me) from March 24-30 caught up with me this past week, causing me to be tired all the time and pretty sluggish whenever I ran. It was hard to make myself get out there and run and even when I did for the most part I felt pretty sub-par (an expression I've never really understood because it doesn't make any sense given the context it's used in). My training pace was faster than usual last week as well; that I don't understand. I think it's because most of my running was solo and I have a hard time regulating my pace real well when I'm by myself. The weather, on top of all of that, sucked last week so two of my runs were on a treadmill and that always blows.
Luckily today felt fantastic and there were no issues/tweaks/hurts anywhere. This week is looking to be a pretty sweet week of running. Only 3 more weeks until the next race, which feels like forever.
My big mileage week (for me) from March 24-30 caught up with me this past week, causing me to be tired all the time and pretty sluggish whenever I ran. It was hard to make myself get out there and run and even when I did for the most part I felt pretty sub-par (an expression I've never really understood because it doesn't make any sense given the context it's used in). My training pace was faster than usual last week as well; that I don't understand. I think it's because most of my running was solo and I have a hard time regulating my pace real well when I'm by myself. The weather, on top of all of that, sucked last week so two of my runs were on a treadmill and that always blows.
Luckily today felt fantastic and there were no issues/tweaks/hurts anywhere. This week is looking to be a pretty sweet week of running. Only 3 more weeks until the next race, which feels like forever.