track fan

1:44:02 (55:33/48:28).  First 6 + miles 8:53 pace, 2 @ 8:16 pace and the final 4+ @ 7:30 pace (the + is about 1/4 mile from where I park my car to the first mile marker).  It was about 95F and sunny when I finished. I was pretty hot, actually the last mile I was a bit sick to my stomach ... but once I stopped and got some water (and poured a bunch on my head) I felt better.  I ran with some pretty fast kids for a while -- I am pretty sure they were high school runners, they were running much easier than me ;-).

Happy Sunday bloggers.

AM: (9 miles, 1:18:55 (40:31/38:24)).  I was thinking about racing today ... whoops, it always makes me run a little faster.

PM: (4 miles).

Last night was one of the best track and field nights at our house ever.  WOW!  The men's 10K was a stunning performance.  Dominated by Zersenay Tadese (Eritera) for most of the race ... he picked up the pace little-by-little, going from 2:46/K the first K down to 2:35 by the 5K mark (with a 4:10 mile between 4K and 6K!!!).  Tadese tried to wear Bekele out ... but as soon as they hit the bell lap Bekele just took off and ran a 56 sec last lap -- wow.  It was an amazing race.  Big HUGE shout out to Ritz ... his 6th place showing -where he moved up quite a bit with a 13:50/13:32 (though many think his first 5K was a little faster than that) was a PR and he is now #4 all-time (American) performers list.  Did I mention it was 77F and 41% humidity when they ran this race?

The women's steeple was great for  Jenny Barringer ... I am sure she is a little disappointed with her first 1/2 of the race, but she ran so well after being gapped in the first 2 laps -- but holy cow the leaders went out with a *3:01* first K - she was clearly smart not to go out with them as she passed about 5 women in the last 800.  She ended up with an American record (9:12) and finished really strong in 5th.  The gold medalist in this race, Marta Dominguez (33 years old and a World Champs gold medalist in the 5K) just took off the last 800 and never looked back.  She was amazing!

My final "highlight" was watching 3 out of the 4 Americans make it to the 1500 final -- WOW.  Leo Manzano is looking very very fit right now (as are Bernard and Lopez Lomong), he strode in 2nd place and his kick was just jaw-dropping!

Most heartbreaking moment was Isinbayeva no-heighting in the World Championship ...the horrid announcers said, "that is kind of like Usain Bolt not winning the 100 meters" -- duh, not really, it is more like Usain Bolt not even making it out of the first round.

1:02:53 (31:44/31:08). Very humid today -- no monsoons, this is kind of like a cold winter day without snow (I always thought I got cheated, since if it is going to be cold it might as well snow).

I am pretty overwhelmed right now. I am sort of stuck with respect to a project I am working on ... I have been working on it for a few days now and need to get it finished by tomorrow. I am hoping the solution (mathematical) is right around the corner. I am sure my students will too, as it is taking away from my preparation time for my lectures next week!

Track shorts:

Sonya Richards ran a fabulous race last night to win gold in the 400 meters. Yesterday also was the qualifying rounds for the 200m, 100m hurdles and 400m hurdles ... very fun.

The men's 3000m steeple finals were very very entertaining. The winner, Ezekiel Kemboi was hysterical after his 8:00 win. I am telling you, he is one skinny dude (maybe 110 lbs?) - all the Kenyan distance guys are, but these steeplechase guys are really skinny. Nice performance by the Frenchman Bob Tahri who beat Paul Koech with a lean at the line.

AM: (10.5 + miles, 1:31:37). 3 x 10` @ SS pace w/3` recovery (7:12, 7:24, 7:14 per mile -- this pace would mean I ran about 2300 m/10` push with 600 m recovery). My target pace for the pushes was 7:24 - 7:36 per/mile. I was able to get 800 meter splits on every one of the pushes, the first and last ones were more accurate because they were about 5` into it, the middle one is the first 800 meters. I was having a hard time with the arithmetic today!! my watch counts down the 10 mins so I had to subtract the time between the 1/2 mile markers - somehow in the middle one I had calculated 10:00 - 6:18 to 7:37 pace ... good think I work with greek letters and not numbers ;-).  25:54 wu/24:46 cd.

I am excited, this was a confidence builder for me. I am starting my 10K training and am a little nervous since I haven't been doing fast stuff in such a long time (2 years!) ... now I won't be so nervous to hit the track!

PM: (4 miles).

Am late to a meeting ... have a good day bloggers!

1:02:40 (31:55/30:34).  Nice recovery run. I feel great today, running-wise. 

More track and field last night -- the men's 200 final was very entertaining.  Bernard did well in the 5K prelim, despite needing 5 stitches after getting spiked in the first part of the race (I was a little upset that did not show more of the race ... but luckily it is online).  I am getting excited for Paige Higgins who will be running the marathon on Sunday.

Dean is going to kick me off of the computer, so that is it for now!

AM:(8 miles, 1:14:51 (38:13/36:37).  Pretty sluggish today, maybe feeling the effects of Thursday's run or maybe because we had a monsoon come through yesterday (so there is lots of water in the washes) so it was pretty humid - 84% which is super high for us! (though blissfully cooler at about 80F).

PM:(4 miles).  I am actually hoping to get up to my favorite running spot, if I can get out of work before it is dark and if it isn't raining (since the washes will be flooded and this run runs through a bunch of washes).

 Today is new student orientation, so I am at work all day ... here in the morning it is talking with the new students and in the afternoon trying to get my lectures finished for next week.  I did, finally, get their first homework written, and more importantly, got the solution set finished.

Last night was nail-biting middle distance racing!  Christine Wurth-Thomas ran a gutsy exciting 1500 leading for about 600 meters and finishing easily in the top 5 even though the race was super fast (2:10 at the 800 I think)!  The race with Anna Willard and Shannon Rowbury was just edge of  your seat action.  It was a super slow race, I want to say 2:20 for the first 800.  This was not good, since the top 5 finishers and two fastest times in both races advance to the final.  This meant that both Anna and Shannon had to get a top 5 finish because the first heat was much faster so the top two time finishers were going to come from that race.  Both of them were boxed in at the bell lap ... luckily they showed their racing maturity by waiting it out and Shannon ran out to lane 3 in the last 10 meters and Anna (this was really nerve-racking) stayed on the inside and trusted her speed and was able to get an opening within the last 5 meters.  WHEW!

The men's 800 semi-finals were equally as exciting, in different ways.  Three men went down in the first 400 meters - pretty much the favorite to win (Sudanese runner Abubaker Kaki who has run the fastest time in the world this year) got clipped and when he went down he took the other two leaders with him (he ended up not finishing the other two will likely contest and get in the final).  Nick Symmonds ended up running in front and taking one of the three automatic qualifier spots.  Depressing second heat -- it was the "whos-who" of 800 meter runners, I mean this heat really looked liked like it could have been the finals ... so the American Khadevis Robinson did not make it through to the final.  It was a great race though with Yuriy Borazakovsky showing the world that he is not done racing yet (even though he had a tough year last year).

Bummer that the US men were DQd from the 4 x 100m relay for a bad pass -- they passed too soon.  

Happy Saturday bloggers.