Going With The Flow

AM - We decided to start late this morning so we could watch the entire NYC Marathon. 6.7 miles, half on soft surfaces. I have a couple sore tendons that need to heal up in the next couple weeks. 

The NYC Marathon results really just emphasized how important it is to not go out to fast, no matter how good you're feeling. I still can't believe that Mary Keitany ran 5:10 pace in the beginning; she paid for it big time at the end. She did give a pretty impressive "last chance" surge when the other two women caught her but just couldn't hold on. The mens race was run perfectly. They went out at a conservative pace and negative split. This method is going to be my strategy in two weeks!

AM - 6 miles to Sugarhouse and back, easy.

PM - 2 miles with 4 x 200m w/ 200m jog in between. 39 s avg. Felt really good. My legs feel fresher and stronger than they have in a while. Taper fun!

Saturday Nov. 12 - Turkey Trot Tune-Up 5K Race
When: 9:30am.
Place: Highland High Track.

We are hoping that the weather will cooperate. Let me know if you are interested, that way we can make sure to keep everyone up to date!

AM - 4.5 miles easy. Wore the clunky, high cushion shoes to try to give some extra support to my posterior tibialis tendon that is giving me problems. 

Jake wrote an interesting blog post yesterday about Footwear and The Middle Ground  that I think is worth reading.

AM - 1 mile just to shake the legs out. Wimpy, I know. BUT I have to keep my mileage down and the very last hard workout (10 days out) is this afternoon! Have to get off work early to do it because it gets dark too quickly.

I got my bib #67. Jake and I compiled a list of all the elite runners yesterday (50 for each of womens and mens) so now we're stalking them all on Athlinks to gauge the competition! If you haven't claimed your races on Athlinks, you should definitely do it so it's easier to stalk :)

PM - Last Chance Workout! Finally! 2 x 5 miles. Splits -

1st 5 miles - 6:21, 6:19, 6:18, 6:11, 6:14. The first 3 miles were the worst of the entire workout - I felt pretty sluggish. Then all of a sudden, I felt great. One mile jog in 7:37.

2nd 5 miles - 6:14, 6:11, 6:09, 6:05, 5:56. Nice negative splits on that one. I felt controlled and strong until the last mile, at about half marathon pace.

Overall a great workout. It accomplished the goal of boosting my confidence a little.

To really go with the whole Biggest Loser theme, I weighed in at 112.2 after the workout. A 1% reduction in one day - I could crush all those contestants!! (don't worry, I promise that I'm not trying to lose weight! I eat more than Jake does and he runs twice as much as me.)

AM - JAJA run! Nice route through some of the ritzy neighborhoods in Sugarhouse. My posterior tibial tendon did not feel good this morning. Workout yesterday irritated it. This issue better go away in the next ten days!!

AM - Easy horsepark loop. Today begins the obsessive checking of the weather for Philadelphia on Sunday 11/20. No need to freak out right now, but I really hope that rain forecast goes away!

Reminder - the Turkey Trot Tune-Up Race is tomorrow at 9am at Highland High Track. The weather might be rainy/snowy, but that is not a good excuse to not come out and run!

Turkey Trot Tune-Up Race! We had a pretty good crew come out this morning to race - James, Fritz, Sandy, Bryan, Chad Robinson, Jake, and myself. Cheering crew included sick Allie, Chad's wife, and Amy.

Jake and I got there a little early to find leaves blown all over one of the turns, so we spend 15 minutes kicking the leaving off the first lane, wishing we had a broom. I'm just glad that it wasn't icy! The weather was actually pretty warm (~48 degrees) but a significant wind from the south at 15 mph. The rain never came :)

After warming up and doing a few strides, Allie did the official start. I think everyone went out a little too fast this morning, hoping that the wind wouldn't make a big difference. Unfortunately, I think that wind cost us all about 20-30 seconds - definitely not a PR day! But still good to get in a hard effort.

I came into the race going for sub-18. This is far from what I am capable of right now, but the fast pace seems to irritate my hamstring tendon and the posterior tibialis tendon has been acting up. Basically, I didn't want to do anything stupid and get myself hurt over a 5k. Well, the competitive edge took over me in the first mile and I went out in 5:31. I was feeling really good up to that point and thought maybe I should just go for a PR. Not my brightest idea! My hamstring started to act up right after that mile, so I slowed it down to not make it worse. Second mile was 6:02. I still wanted to hit that sub-18 as long as I wasn't causing additional damage. I picked it up the last mile a little to get just under 18 minutes. Final time was 17:58.

In hindsight, I should've stuck to my original plan of going out slow and picking it up if I felt fine but oh well. At least I was smart enough to slow down after the mile and don't think there should be residual effects.

Overall, it was a fun event and nice to be able to call people on the blog "friends" instead of just "internet friends"!

Pics of the crew here.