week of 7 May

Mo - Rest

Tu - Rest

We - Rest
tempted to run, legs felt good, but was traveling to CA. Sprinting for the parking lot bus was easy though :-)

Th - 8.9
Ran from LAX hotel to the beach, maybe 5 or 6 minutes on the beach path?, then back to hotel. I was able to gmap it and see 8.9 miles. Took 1:27:02. Avg hr was high (142) for the pace 9:46. Legs felt pretty good (until about 60 mins in I felt my quads), but I still had the fatigued feeling in my chest. Also, it was pretty warm and I never run well in the afternoon.

Fr - Rest
Travel day back from CA

Sa -6.2 (5K race)
29:40/141 warmup. I sorta ran the course and guess 9:30 pace in the warmup, which came out to 3.12 so I'll call it 5K :-) I could tell during the warmup, I still had the a little of the fatigued feeling but my legs felt quite good (quads a little sore, but not much).

I guessed I'd run about 20:30 before the race, but I started fast in the first 30 meters or so before realizing I shouldn't be right behind guys I knew ran low 18's. I ran pretty evenly the first mile after that and saw 6:26.7 at the split (avg 177bpm). Right on 20 pace. Should I try? Next mile had some hills and I slowed down like I always seem to in the middle miles 6:35.7/191. I sustained quite a high heart rate, which I'm happy with. The places were basically sorted out by then, except 2 guys passed me in the last mile, but I repassed one. It turns out that was just enough to knock me from 10th to 11th male (12th overall). The last 1.1 were 7:28.8/190 (6:45 pace). 188 average overall from STraM. Obviously I went out too fast, but I have a good idea what 20 min pace feels like (6:26) and how much I'm short. Better rest, a flatter course, and more motivation (if I'm close to 20) is probably worth 15 seconds. I'll have to improve for the other 15.

Anyway, big news is that I got a 2nd place age group award. It was a small race and I had a lean age group I think, but I got to shake my congressman's hand, get my medal and a gift certificate to a restaurant. I ended up $5 and a t-shirt over my entry fee. Maybe I should quit my day job?

It wasn't a certified course, but the RD said it was wheel measured and double-checked with a bike. The mile markers also seemed spot on to me, so I'll count it. Official time was 20:32. 20:31 on my watch. Closest I've ever been to a starting line. I was about third row.

Su - 8.3
Usual lake A route. I thought about doing two laps around the lake (12.1 miles total), but my quads hurt (sharply at times) and I decided that discretion was the better part of valor. I haven't run this in a while and got a little caught up in being able to run it faster now. 1:16:05/143. 9:09 pace. This is a couple of seconds per mile slower than I was running my 20-milers before the marathon, but it felt harder than that! Several factors: marathon 7 days ago, 5K yesterday, I ate breakfast ~hr before, and 63-67 degrees.

week
23.5 miles (yikes that's low!)
shoes
wp6-1: 340 + 6 = 346
wp7-1: 45 + 18 = 63
wr10-1: 335 + mowed the lawn in them :-)