The last stand

So a slim week so far.  My calves killed Monday from the intervals in the racing flats.  I did 7.1 early Tuesday to try and loosen them up, but went super slow - 8:44 pace.  Wednesday was busy with work and baseball.  Thursday was busy and rainy.  So today I went out at lunch from work.  A normal 4.8 miler - but I dropped a 6:43 mile in the middle to help out a little for next week.  The last stand.  I may try another 'last stand' tomorrow or Sunday - some 200s - but we'll see.  A busy holiday week.  I kinda wish the track mile was yesterday - not after memorial day - but oh well.  

10x400s

Saturday I headed down to AHS track and did 10x400s.  I managed to do all of them between 1:25 and 1:29.  I've now revised my plan to try for under 5:50.  Sunday I ran around arlington while laney did her first 5k.  Today I ran an easy 7.1 miles at a very slow 8:44 pace.  

Two weeks out

tomorrow will mark two weeks before my old-man adro mile.  Since the weather sucked away my weekend, I did a hilly 3.1 miles (263 feet climbing) on Monday just to get out.  Tuesday I ran home from work via freshy pond and did 4x5 minutes intervals at something like a 6:45 pace (maybe).  They felt hard as hell.  Not perfect, but it had been 9 days since my last session and I wanted to get something in.  Today I ran from work!  woop!  felt good to get out at lunch and see people along the river.  8:35 pace for 4.1 miles.  So far, after 3 days of work: 13.6 miles.  Maybe an easy one friday and i'll aim for some track intervals this weekend.

Raggy Cape Cod

This week I only ran two days.  First was a nice 8.5 miler on Wednesday morning.  The commute runs haven't been working out great.  This run felt pretty good.  I kept the pace brisk, but nothing too fast.  The only problem was that I had to leave early and work from home sick.  Something didn't sit right after that run.  Felt awful most of the day.  I felt fine the next day, but conserved myself for Friday since I was asked to pinch hit for a relay race.  I felt pretty good for that.  First, it was great to see some old friends.  I took the first hand-off and ran 4.9 miles at a 7:23 pace - pretty even throughout.  I could have pushed it more, but knew I had another one coming up.  About 10 hours later, the other one came - almost the same length 5.3 miles this time.  The pace was a bit slower and had a hill between miles 2 and 3: 7:43, 7:39, 8:16, 7:37, 7:36, 7:38 - so a nice strong finish after the hill - good for a 7:45 pace.

Yesterday was super busy with kid crap and today with more kid crap and mother's day - so no intervals - which is probably for the best since it's mid-40s with pouring rain.  I'll maybe try and get out tomorrow for a short run.

Allergy Week

This week the allergies hit.  I did my first run, home from work - a goal of 9 miles with a good 15-20 minute pickup.  Felt really bad about 2 miles in, and just run half-way around fresh pond kinda slow and then headed home.  Felt awful the whole way - blustery cold May weather - run totally sucked.  Total of 5.8 miles and I crashed on the basement floor for about 20 minutes.  Felt like I had a fever.  Watched survivor and got some sleep - felt better on the way to work.  I changed my breakfast to just eggs and turkey sausage - trying to avoid wheat and rice.  Seemed to work as the run into work felt better - although still a slow 4 miles.

Today I went out for intervals at the track.  Rain the last few days seemed to help allergies.  Felt pretty good.  I wanted about 1:30s/400 - and pretty much did that - maybe 1:31s or 1:32s for the 8 - faster at the beginning, but falling off a little.  I did take plenty of time inbetween - since I wanted to hit the 1:30s - and not do the 1:35-1:40s like before.  Next week is 12x200s.  I should be able to push those to sub 45s pretty easy.  Hopfully the eggs and claritin keep the allergies at bay.

Ramble Redux

So I had a nice uneventful week heading into the yesterday's ramble.  And my limited 10k training paid off with a decent, though unspectacular, time.  I'm going to go with my strava/gps time, since it is faster, of 44:03 -  7:03 pace.  Although, that should be a 7:06 pace if the distance was accurate.  Anyway - the race started out well.  My goal was to run about 7:10 the first 2 miles and pick it up.  Of course, I went out to fast - aided by a net downhill 6:53 and 7:04.  I tried to keep the pace dialed back a bit for the next two: 7:07 and 7:25 - probably a little too slow on that 4th mile.  It was the mile with the most, albiet small, uphill portions.  Nevertheless, I managed to have some gas left in the tank for the last two - which was my main goal - and did 6:50 and 7:00 the last two miles.  So pretty good - the 5th and 6th miles were my 1st and 3rd fastest of the race.  I wrote last week that the goal was maybe 7:10 - and I managed that.  A little off the battlegreen 10k from 18 months ago -  but not a crash and burn race.

The pacing does give me some confidence going into next fall's half.  I think I should be capable of doing something in the 7:30 or below - if I can pick a decent course (maybe bay state?).  About a month until the track mile.  Hopefully there, I can set a PR.  One potential problem may be the heat.  We were pretty lucky last year - but early June may be a bit rough.  We'll see.