Bryan's Running Blog

54:51 ==> 7:50 pace. Colby (our 8 month old) woke up at 4:00am. We try to let him cry himself back to sleep if it's before 5am, but he wouldn't. Kristen went in and fed him -- I decided since I was awake I might as well go running. So I got this morning's run done very early. Felt fine, except that it was very, very cold. I had more energy than expected the day after fast Sunday.

49:49 ==> 7:13 per mile on average. I did the Crockett Park, Green Hills Blvd run with a little twist. During 3 sections of my run, I picked up the pace: I ran around a 6:30 mile for about a mile 2 miles into the run, around a 6:00 pace for about 2/3 a mile about 4 miles into the run, and about a 6:10 mile for about 1.3 miles just before the end of the run. Felt OK. I was wearing too many clothes.

52:49 ==> 7:26 per mile. I ran down Knox Valley Road until Gordon Petty Court. On the way back I cut through Crockett Park via the River Trail. At this pace I feel like I am exercising -- but it's not too difficult to maintain for a long time.

57:11 ==> 8:10 per mile. Crockett Park, Green Hills run. I felt like going slow today. I had to go to the bathroom for half of the run -- keeping it all in me until getting back to the house was the most notable part of today's run.

59:30. Very slow -- I tried to hardly use any energy. I'm saving up for my big 5k tomorrow.

I ran the Frostbite 5K (Sumner County, TN) yesterday. My time was a little slower than I'd hoped, but I ended up taking 3rd place (out of around 200). So at least I got a sports bag prize out of it!

I got to the race site a little late and didn't get much of a chance to warm up. It was cold. The first mile was in 5:57. I started a little bit behind the front and had to weave my way through people. I probably should have had a faster first mile, because much of it was downhill. Next time I'll try to make it to the race a little earlier and get closer to the starting line.

The next mile I ran in 6:20. There were two fast kids way ahead of everyone who I never saw after about the first half mile. (These two got times of 17:05 and 17:12). Another guy (Mike) and I slowly broke away from the others. From mile 1 to the finish, I didn't see any other runners except for Mike. I followed about 5 yards behind him from mile 1-2. There were quite a few ups and downs.

I felt the pace was a little too slow and picked up the speed a little just after the mile 2 mark. I passed Mike and stayed ahead of him the rest of the way (he ended up finishing 20 seconds behind me). There was a bit of uphill on this last mile. Had a nice sprint for the last 50 yards.

Anway, my time was slower than I'd hoped. I had a goal of sub-18 minutes. It's probably that I'm just not as fast as I'd imagined. Other factors include 1) not enough of a warmup, 2) a bit of a cold/ sore throat this weekend, 3) a hilly course, 4) lack of a racing strategy, 5) few people close enough to my target speed to run against. In any case, it was nice to run a race again.