It's a sprint, not a marathon

JohnP wrote:Good luck on Saturday. Treat Thursday/Friday as days you need to get a little more sleep than usual, and eat well Friday. It will make a difference.

That's the plan!

Mark B wrote:What's the distance of Saturday's race? It seems like you've gotten enough fast training under your belt to make it worth the risk to be a little more aggressive out there on the course. Good luck!

It's just 3 miles, so even if I blow up a little I should only have to hang on for a mile or so.

Seth Harrison wrote:Hey Jim, I'm catching back up with everyone and your plan for shorter races seems to be going well. You seem to making good use of the treadmill during winter training. I especially like the beer tasting intervals mixed in to the training! Keep it up!

Hey, I was told that in Dave-O's training group, beer is a recovery drink, so I'm taking him at his word! Unfortunately, the mill is a necessity due to the lack of daylight and decent places to run in the dark around my house.

Good to see you back and in good health Seth!

Good luck on your race on Saturday! Looking forward to hearing how it goes for you!

KathyK wrote:Good luck on your race on Saturday! Looking forward to hearing how it goes for you!

Pretty well, but not a great day for me. I ended up running a 19:40 for 3 miles, which is 6:33 pace. Strangely, when you plug that into the McMillan calculator, it spits out 20:32 for a 5K, which is 6:37 pace for only another tenth of a mile. Seems off to me, but then I think their new format is crappy compared to the old one.

At any rate, the race was just okay for me. My legs never fully bounced back and felt fresh from my workout last Tuesday night and I had a little mental lapse somewhere in mile 2, and that combined with the wind in my face for most of that mile resulted in a slower than I was hoping 6:44 mile. The other indicator of a not so great race is that several people I've been finishing ahead of beat me and a guy in my AG that I've been 35-40 seconds ahead of in the last 2 races finished just 1 second behind me. I finished 2nd in my AG, but that wasn't enough to get me 3rd overall for the series because I missed the first race and that cost me enough points that I finished in 4th.

Oh well, it was a solid series for me and I can tell my fitness is improving and my short distance racing legs are coming back pretty well. I have 5 weeks until the St. Patrick's day 5 miler and another few weeks of intervals and hills along with extending the long runs a bit should put me right where I want to be for that.

Sorry it wasn't the race you wanted, but as you mentioned, you feel like you fitness is improving. So, it's all good! Keep pushin'!

2 inconsistent weeks before this one have left me working harder on runs than I'd like to, but at least I've gotten in some decent workouts this week.

Tuesday was a 6 x 800 with 2 @ 3:15, 2 @ 3:13, and 2 @ 3:11 for a total of 7 miles. Thursday was an easy 9 miles at about 8:23 pace, yesterday was an easy 5 @ 8:41, and I had a really solid tempo run this morning where I averaged 7:15 for 5 miles over 9 miles total. If I can get in a scheduled 10-12 miler tomorrow, I'll hit 40+ for the week for the first time in a long while.

Sorry the race wasn't what you hoped. It's always seemed to me that the mental side is even more important in short distances than in longer ones, even if only because the intensity of focus is so critical.

You are making progress, though. So that's a good thing. Keep it up!

I did in fact manage to get in a little over 10 miles on Sunday to hit 40 miles in a week for the first time in a long time. A very productive week with 2 more to go before the St. Pat's Day 5 miler.

The workout I did tonight I knew was going to be brutal going in. The dreaded ladder: 400-800-1200-1600-1200-800-400 with 400 between everything except the 1200 and 1600. The way up was brutal, as expected, culminating in a 6:10 mile, but coming back down didn't seem that bad even though I kept going faster. 1200 in 4:38, 800 in 3:06, and a 1:29 400. 9 miles total.

I have one more hard workout, a tempo run, and I have to decide if I'm going to do it as a 2 x 3 mile or 6 miles all at once. That, one long run, and a quick, get the legs moving 6 x 400 are all I have planned besides easy runs until the race on the 16th.