Doug's Running Thingy

Yes! What a difference 20 degrees makes.  Was able to drag out to the trails early this morning and get in 6 miles.  Ran the figure 8 plus north loop again with steady increased effort 8:13, 8:02, 8:01, 7:51, 7:45, 7:38.  Decent run to start the week off right. No ill effects from the several hours we spent yesterday boating, kayaking and swimming in the Wakulla River - big fun, but no manatee sightings... until we left, of course.  The couple we were with sent pics of a group of six they saw 5 minutes after we had to leave - figures.

Goal this morning was to run the north loop 0.8 mile section under 5 minutes.  Did about 1.5 miles warmup at 9 min pace and then started on the loop.  Felt pretty good and finished up at 5:03 - fastest I've run it in a long while so that'll work.  Continued on around the ravine trail at 8:45-9:00 pace back to the trailhead. Had about 4 inches of rain yesterday, so humidity was about 120%, but at least temps were down to mid 70s this morning.

Late night last night so was lazy this morning.  Got out to the trails this evening for a hill workout.  Went 2 miles at 8:07, 8:02 for warm up and then did 4X160 meter hills with a job back down the hill for rest.  First 100 meters pretty gradual incline and then it really cranks up for the last 60.  I hit them at 37, 37, 36 and 35 seconds.  Little over a mile back to the trailhead for cool down.  Nice workout.  Pondering a hilly road 5K for Saturday - we'll see.

First time in months that I've run a 4th day in a row, so I took it real easy.  Did my usual overstreet trail/ravine trail figure 8 right at 8:30 pace.  

Decided to go ahead and race tomorrow morning, so I just ran a couple easy miles in the neighborhood this morning to loosen up a little.  Might do a couple more this evening if Travis wants to hit the trails.  The race tomorrow is a road 5K with a downhill 1st mile, rolling 2nd mile and uphill 3rd mile (looks like a gain of 100 feet steadily over the whole mile - yes, thats a hill in Florida).  The whiners last year (I didn't run it) said it was tough - guess we'll see.

Travis opted for catching up on sleep this morning, so I was on my own for the race.  Learned this morning that the start/finish is one of the highest points in Tallahassee - great.  Garmin tells me that from the start of the 3rd mile to the finish line we gained 110 feet, most of it from about 2.5 to 2.75 miles.  I knew about that part, but didn't fully comprehend the hilly second mile.

We started at a middle school and made a couple turns to the top of the downhill at about 300 meters in (out and back course, so this is the uphill at the end).  I planned on 6 flat for this downhill mile and went through at 6:02 actually holding back a little.  The next mile had a few turns and one 100 meter uphill section that I found myself working way too hard on, so I backed off a bit.  That was what killed my shot at sub 20.  I figured 6:20 for the second mile but went 6:44 as I conserved a bit for the last uphill mile.  Halfway up the steepest part of the last hill, I was really creeping along when I saw the stoplight at the top of the hill.  Finally had something to shoot for so I snapped out of it and ran pretty tough on in to the finish.  Expected a 7 flat 3rd mile and ran 7:05.  I passed a couple guys on the 3rd mile and nobody went by me, so thats something I suppose.  I finished 20th overall and the top 25 got cute medals.  Travis' coach took the masters win, and there were 2 or 3 other masters in front of me - will update with official results when I see them.  Did about a mile warmup and then a half mile cool down with coach for the total 4.5.