Doug's Running Thingy

The usual Monday supersize figure 8 on the trails.  Calves were a little sore at first from racing on Saturday, but still averaged under 8 per mile and ran the last mile in 7:28 to finish a few seconds faster than last week.  Going to focus on water and rest and morning runs only this week to try for a more satisfying few workouts going into another 5K on Saturday.

Very humid this morning, but mid 70's, so quite bearable.  I ran the 1st and last miles of the 5K I will be running on Saturday, and the overstreet trail in between.  Did the 3 middle miles at 7:30-7:45, with the others at 8.  Hopefully the low to mid 70's will hold out until Saturday morning.

Lovely morning today - 71 degrees and humidity sub 80%. Translated to a fine workout on the trails.  Ran 1.5 warmup to the ravine trail midpoint then did 6X 2 minutes on and 1 minute off, with the "ons" at 5K race pace and walking the "offs".  All of the reps were between 6:14 and 6:25, so thats just about perfect for where I am right now... hope to go just sub 20 minutes on Saturday.  Finished up with about a mile and a quarter cool down.

Goal today was run the north loop under 5 minutes.  Warmed up on the 1.5 miles to the start of north loop at 8:30 pace, and cooled down at about the same for the last 2 miles.  On the twisty tight 0.8 mile north loop, I thought I was flying and feeling pretty good, but came through the finish at 5:03 - oh well.  Might have to look back and see when I last broke 5 on that little devil.  Certainly having a better week than last week - commitment to morning runs is helpful with this heat.

The Operation One Voice Florida Fallen Heroes 5K was pretty cool, with Marine color guard at the start, National Guard and local ROTC groups running, and cops on bikes throughout the course.  Better still, it was on my favorite course in town at Maclay Gardens right across from the house.  The race is in its 3rd year, and proceeds go toward the families of killed and injured Special Operations members.  They had a pretty good turnout, although not many of the local elites showed up...  thus my 7th place overall and 2nd place age group finish  :)

The course starts with a rolling mostly downhill first mile on asphalt, and I went through as planned right at 6:20 (6:18).  The second mile plus a bit is flat and on trails that I run pretty much every day.  Came through 2 miles a few seconds over my 12:40 goal (12:43, 2nd mile in 6:25), but felt fairly strong.  The third mile starts on trails and heads back to asphalt and uphill to the finish.  Ran the third mile in 6:35 and worked through the finish to sneak under my goal of 20 minutes with a 19:53.  Good confidence boost for the mile race next week and the 8K trail race the following weekend.