I only run on days that end in a "y."

Decided I would run this late last night.  I emailed one of the assitance coaches and asked if I could still register.  He said I could but wouldn't be able to get a timing chip.  I emailed him back saying that was too bad, and then he replied that I should go ahead and show up anyway and they would figure something out.  I didn't think that sounded too promising, but I figured I would give it a shot anyway.

I had gotten back on Saturday from a red-eye flight from Lima, taking off around midnight and arriving in Houston around 6:30 am, finally getting into Austin around 11 am.  I was exhausted and when my alarm went off at 5 am Sunday morning it took everything I had to roll out of bed.  It was the first solid night of sleep I had in 10 days and I was getting up at 5 to run a race?  Was I crazy?

Anyway, I parked about a mile and a half away from the start and did my warm up.  I got to registration and was told I wouldn't be able to get timed, but I dropped a name and he said sure, he would do it for me. :-) Whew.  So after 10 or so minutes I was all set.  

I ran another half mile or so and did a few strides.  I wasn't feeling all the great and haven't trained at all, just some recent easy runs coming off my injury.  I had no idea what I was going to do but I knew I wanted to at least get under 19:00.  But honestly,  my legs were not feeling that great, and neither was I.  

In this race the 10 milers take off at 7:00 and the 5kers at 7:15.  I walked my way up so that I would be first in line after the 10 milers left.  I didn't know where I would finish but figured at the starting line is where I belonged.  I saw Carmen there, who had coached me in the past, and thought she would be in pretty good shape. Since I had no plan I figured I would stick with her and see how I felt.  

We take off, I look at my pace - 5:33 - but who knows how accurate that is.  I am feeling pretty good and relaxed,  I pass Carmen at abour .75 miles in and never saw her again.  I was slowing down, my first mile was a 5:53 or so, but I could feel I would not be able to maintain that.  Unfortunately now it was pretty sparse, a couple people in front but no one that I could pace off of.  My pace dropped and I wasn't paying to much attention to it, I look at my watch and speed up.  My watch laps at mile 2 about 50-100 m before the mile marker.  My watch is of no use now really since it's off.  At this point I just try to hold on.  Of course the last .5 miles of a 5k is all about surviving.  I turn the corner and give it what I have left in the tank.  Which is not much at this point.  I hear 18:50 when I cross.  I am OK with that.  It was a hard effort for the condition that I was in.  Official tine was 18:56.  I won 3rd in the Masters division - got a nice GPS watch so that's not bad at all!

No lingering Planatar issues so I think I am good to go to start ramping up 5k training in the next two weeks.

5.5 recovery miles around the trail at lunchtime.  Legs are a tad bit sore.

6.5 easy miles in the am around the neighborhood.  I was the only one out - where are all the runners?

Met up with Dan at the Y @ 6am for some base miles around the Town Lake trail.  Did some core at the Y after the run.  Some 7:40's and 7:50's in there with AP of 8:03.  Very humid morning!  Cool front should hit tomorrow - will go for 10-12 miles on Saturday morning.  Might hit 40 miles this week!

5.5 at lunchtime on the trail.  

Met up with the group for 12 miles.  Wonderful weather, had a long sleeve but that only lasted until mile 6.  Legs felt pretty good, hit some mid-low 7:00s and then finished with 1.5 @ 6:38 pace.

Drove a mile to the Y and did 8 x hill sprints.  The first one was painful but legs had loosened up by number 4 and they felt much better.  Happy I did them.