AM - went down to Kiwanis park where the NTN Southwest Region Championships 5K race is to be held to run the course and get an idea of how to run it as well as what the course was like. Took Joseph and Adam with me to run with the double jogging stroller.
So first, a description of the course. It starts out pretty nice, flat terrain on grass, then moves rather quickly to the packed dirt of the canal road. This goes on for 3/4 of a mile, then you do a wide u-turn and run on the sidewalk for a while. Follow the sidewalk left and then down a short but steep hill, and turn right to go under a bridge, then right again back up the same hill on the other side of the road and onto the sidewalk on the other side. We then run around a baseball/softball field complex, ending up back at the bridge again. Go under the bridge, then turn right again to go up one mother of a hill. I am guessing it was about 50 meters long and maybe about 35-40 meters high. Geez, that was tough, especially pushing a double jogging stroller with 75 pounds of kids. Back down a gradual hill, then along a lake on the grass. Cross the path and head around the other side of the lake, smallish hill, then back onto the canal road for a short distance. Head left to follow the sidewalk, then back onto grass for about 50 meters, then veer right to go up another nasty hill, although not as bad as the first. Run along the top of the hill for a short distance, then veer left and run back down the hill, gathering a lot of speed (again, especially if you are now letting a double jogging stroller with 75 pound of kids pull you down), only to go up the huge hill again (I think they call it All American Hill or something like that - it is one nasty piece of work). That is the last hill, we then follow the same trail along the lake again, when we get to the far side of the lake, turn right for a bit, then make a sharp left turn to hit the final .2 miles or so. Holy cow, I may have to readjust my goals. This is definitely a very challenging course. I am glad I ran it, because I actually messed up and got myself lost (although I am sure the course will be much more clearly marked next Saturday). Ended up only running one time, and pushing the stroller all that grass wore me out pretty good. Total distance was 4.21 miles, average pace of 8:05/mile.
PM - Knew I had to get in some more miles to hit 40 for the week. Headed out the door after coming back from grocery shopping. It was a bit hard to find a rhythm at first, and I was laboring a bit more than usual, but after about 0.5 miles, I hit my stride and got into a groove. At 1 mile, decided I was going to do a tempo run. Sped up to MP. Splits are as follows:
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Mile 1
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7:09
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Mile 2
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6:57
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Mile 3
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6:38
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Mile 4
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6:43
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Cooled down for the last 1.1 miles at about 8:00 pace. Felt like a good workout, achilles felt pretty good. | 