May the Mass x Acceleration be with you

Warmup

1.39 mile warmup in 11:46
Supposed to be 2x2 min @ 1/2 marathon pace, but I ended up running alongside one of the top runners on his jog while I was cruising at my 1/2 marathon pace and we ended up running the rest of the way back, thankfully slowing to a more comfortable 7/mile.

Race

Resolution Series 5k in 18:20 (/mile)

The course is long, so it was actually 18:55 for about 3.22 miles. I hit the lap button on the Garmin when it got to 3.11, and I had almost 200 meters to go on the track. Crazy. I wish they would get the course fixed.

10th over all, first master (although 1st and 3rd overall were both masters runners who were bumped from division awards). I was only 44 seconds behind Salazar, which is probably the closest I've ever finished to him. Age is catching up with him as I continue to move forward.

It was a perfect day, sunny, no wind and about 40 degrees. I got out a little slow. I assumed that with the track start I would naturally be a little too fast, but when I checked my pace after abou 1/2 mile I was at 6:02 pace and I wanted to be at least 5:55 if not faster. Thank God for the Garmin, I was able to monitor my pace and know that I needed to step it up.

Second mile I took advantage of the downhill in the first half to drop to 5:50 for the split through 1.55. I was in 13th at the halfway point but moved up to 10th by the finish. There was another guy 4 seconds ahead of me, and a group of 4 more guys just another 10 seconds up from that. Next year!

Last mile I gradually worked on a couple guys just ahead of me. One of them I never caught, but the two of us moved up and passed 3 other guys, including one younger runner who has been faster than me ever since injuries caused me to miss several years of running and get completely out of shape.

Unfortunately, I don't get to do the series this year. I will miss half the races. I'll decided in March whether to race the 20k or marathon pace the 20 mile. It will be only 4 or 5 weeks before the marathon, so i'll have to be careful.

Good to see Mike there, who finished in 19:34, which would be around 19:00 for a true 5k. No Carl or Preston, or Darrin.

Splits:
1 - 05:54 - 5:54.4
2 - 11:48 - 5:54.1
3 - 17:44 - 5:56.3
.11 - 18:20 - 35.8
.1 - 18:55 - 35.3

Cool down

2 mile cool down with Mike in 16:16 (8:08/mile)

12.1 miles in 1:34:26

Still pretty tired and a little stiff and sore from Sunday's 5k.

Splits: 8:13 - 8:04 - 7:37 - 7:33 - 7:42 - 7:32 - 7:37 - 7:36 - 7:30 - 7:50 - 7:52 - 8:32

Approximately 7 miles (Garmin was out of battery power), but may have been more or less. 57:36 was the time.

1 mile warmup on trails in 8:04

10 miles @ 3/4 effort in 1:08:02 (6:48/mile)

Pretty sure I ran a little too hard today. It was definitely more of a strain than in previous efforts. I'm still a little tired and sore, too, partly from lifting on Tuesday after a couple weeks off.

Splits: 6:56 - 6:44 - 6:54 (uphill) - 6:31 - 6:46 - 6:44 - 6:54 - 6:45 - 7:06 - 6:43

Cool down jog

Easy 7.04 miles in  56:10 (7:58/mile)

Pretty tired today, legs are sore and weak. It's a struggle on the downhills.

Splits: 8:23 - 7:53 - 7:45 - 8:00 - 7:56 - 8:00 - 7:53

16.1 miles in 2:06:56 (7:53/mile)

Man, this was a hard run. I put the miles in the blog as 'Easy Miles', but there was nothing easy about it. Where's the "slow by painful" category?

First, I was having some GI distress by the 2nd mile (where's the picture RattleTrap put up a few weeks ago about the runs?). Then, my legs were just sluggish throughout the run, but especially over the last 4 miles my quads were aching. 16 miles shouldn't be this hard. It's a long way from here to 26.2. I brought a water bottle with me, but it's still out there somewhere. I stashed it around mile 6 and forgot to get it on the way back. Maybe next week.

Splits: 8:27 - 8:01 - 7:49 - 7:44 - 7:40 - 7:35 - 7:35 - 8:01 - 7:40 - 8:08 - 7:47 - 7:47.5 - 7:52 - 8:01 - 8:02 - 7:52