our choices show what we truly are

Great race overall. It is a two loop course over three big hills (to be repeated twice). The only real problem of this race is the start in a narrow road with cars parked on both sides on a slightly downhill slope for the first 200m, after that, the road is wide and the hills will "dilute" the runners. I went into this race knowing that finishing in 44 minutes (for an 11k race) it would be a great result and it would be a virtual 10k PR. It is hard to go at a constant pace because the continuous up and down. I decided to use my effort level and ignore the garmin. I went out really hard and I finished the first lap in 20:3X something, I thought about finishing the whole thing under 43 minutes, but during the last two hills I was done, my legs were heavy and I struggled to maintain a decent pace on the hills. I finished with 43:42. It is my first official race sub 4:00/k, I have to improve my resistance over the distance, speed is there, but I have to be able to maintain it for the whole distance. I don't want to overkill myself, on a more flat terrain it would have been easier to maintain the same pace. A great race.

Slow and easy recovery run, 10 miles started really slow and finished near MP.

Cool and pleasant for a run.

Another recovery evening run, just easy miles to bring back some life into my legs.

No run tonight, the heavy rain was discouraging. This is going to be the rainiest spring of the last 20-30 years. I hope at least it is going to wash out the pollen.

My goal for tonight was a 10x1k at 10k pace with 1:30 recovery. Before going into details, when I started I knew I was going to crash, the question was just when and how. After a 2k warm up I started with the repeats: 3:49, 3:53, 3:51, 3:51, 3:52, 3:51. I started #7 but I stopped after 200m (it was a mental crash that anticipated a physical one) and kept running at slower pace until I hit 13k for the total run .

I felt disappointed but not surprised, I was happy because all my splits were consistent, just the recovery was too short (and the speed too high) for my current level of fitness.

Easy recovery run. 

2k warm up then I started a tempo run, goal distance was 8k at HM pace.

I was doing great until k 6.5 when I had a sharp pain in my left quadricep, I continued for another 100m because the pain was the same I stopped and started walking, after 3 more k walking the pain almost disappeared and I started jogging back to the car. When I got home the pain was still there, I iced the part and massaged it and for the next few days I will avoid any fast workout. Since last sunday I did too many fast kilometers. Just for the record the tempo pace was 4:02/k, I could have kept it easily for another 1.5k, but keep pushing for the sake of completing the planned workout it was not worth the risk.