Doug's Running Thingy

Travis and I popped out into the folks' neighborhood for a few miles early this morning.  We started out at 7:45 pace and by the end of 3 miles were down to 7:28, so I bailed and let him continue on without me.  I finished up with another mile and a half at 7:50 pace.  Trav circled around another lap to finish with about 6.25.  Was a good run after nothing Fri or Sat - bleh.  Racing the 5K tonight at midnight - wooooo.

Race went much better than expected - always good.   Travis and I ran much of the 1-mile race with the daughter child, the wife, the folks and the brother-in-law as a little warm up.  All of them did well and had a good time.  Travis vacillated considerably during the warm up between thinking he would run the 5K easy with me or go out hard and see how he felt.  Starting siren sounded and he was gone! I saw him at the turn-around in 6th place and thats where he ended up, in a decent time of 17:44. Three of the guys ahead of him were in his 16-17 age group, so 6th overall only netted him 4th in his age group - ah well, he was pleased. 

I went out pretty fast (6:18) for my planned 21 flat goal, but actually felt really good, so just went with it through the turn-around. Still felt pretty good coming off the draw bridge on the way back with a little less than a mile left, so worked fairly hard to maintain 6:30 pace.  Crossed the line and the finish clock said 20:10, Garmin said 20:11, and the chip timing results read 20:13 - I'll take it - and the 4th place age group award too!  Got to see Bret at the turn-around as well, and then for a bit of a visit after the race - got his age group award too - I'm on fire!!  Was a good evening.

Drove home from Dunedin this morning and then to work for a few hours, so didn't get out for a run until this evening - silly hot and humid.  Got in 4.7 on the ravine trail, north loop and new trail.

Hot energyless evening run again today.  Ran the clockwise perimeter of ravine, connector and overstreet trails real easy... 9 minute pace.  Some calf soreness remains from racing and playing in the pool this weekend, but shouldn't impact my assault on 12 minutes for the 2-mile at summer track tomorrow eve - we'll see.

Well, as good as I felt on the 5K Sunday, I felt the opposite this evening for the 2-mile on the track.  Plan was to go through the first mile at 6 flat and see how I felt.  Unlike the "mile" last week that actually was 1600 meters, they started us at the spot for a full 2-mile run - cool.  Settled into too much of a pack for the first 600 meters and went through off pace pretty bad, but smoothed out for several 45 second 200s over the next few laps.  I hit the mile at 6:08 not feeling too comfy.  Proceeded to blow up to 6:22 for the next mile and finished at 12:31.  Will be out of town next Thurs for the 5K, so looks like it will be no better than 4th overall for the series this year.  Should hold on to 1st for age group though - that'll work.

Got out this morning and did my longest run since this time last year when I got Bret and myself lost in San Felasco for a 9 miler - sheesh.  Warm and humid at 0800... better than hot and steamy I suppose.  Started at the track and went to Forest Meadows and then down along Lake Jackson and back.  Fairly hilly course and more sections of large gravel than I recall - no fun, but a good workout - kept it around 8:15-8:45 pace.