my makeup may be flaking

AM 8.5 This included 11 1min pickups with two minutes rest in between. This one a fun workout to do. I did the whole workout running around liberty park. I did the easy bits on the woodchips and the pickups on the grass to get some firmer footing. Each time I picked some landmark and tried to make it there before my watch beeped. Definitely looking forward to more Fartlek type workouts this fall.

PM 6.2 10k loop to 2100S. I did this late in the evening (starting around 10pm) or so and it was still too soon after dinner. I didn't feel nauseous but I felt pretty sluggish. Someone I managed to push myself to a respectable pace.

AM After I ran, ate breakfast, showered and rolled my muscles out with the stick I realized I was going to be late for work. The fastest way for me to get to school is running, even with a full backpack. So I completely undid my shower by running to school at about 9am as the morning was heating up. Gross.

Probably my last circuit race for the year. I have been obscenely consistent after a few hiccups at the beginning.

ROTL-12th,SLCHalf-10th,PCHM-4th,(UVHM-should be on LDR-6th),Draper Days-6th,RFTC-5th

I was debating with myself whether or not to do this race right up until the last moment. So much so that when I went to pick up my packet, they found my name added in pen to the bottom of the sheet written, no doubt, with ink made from the tears of the race director as she contemplated why people make her life so hard.

Umm,anyway,yes, I wasn't sure about this race because I knew I wasn't really ready to race a 10k. I can kind of gut out a 5k (see last week's effort) but a 10k is really just about pure fitness. I've been close to getting some money everytime at one of these races so I thought I should give it a go.

The competition was pretty good up front. There was Teren, Nate H., Riley Cook, Ken Richardson and Dennis Simonaitis. When I saw this lineup, I though to myself "if I am smart, I can get top 3". It was hot and I do not do well in the heat, but there would be shade and otherwise I was feeling pretty good.

At the start I let Teren go and settled into 4th behind Nate and Riley. The pace felt easy (as I've come to expect) and I was getting antsy but then my breathing just kind of ran away from me and I couldn't get it out of control. That's really a sign that I have some work to do base wise. I started to slowly lose ground right at the mile mark which I reach in 5:16. This mile should have felt a little bit easier than it did so I started to worry. I had a prerace expectation of 33 high, but I felt that I was capable of maybe sub 33 which is 5:18 pace. I figured that was out the window after this mile. I found a new rhythm and go my breathing under control. The second mile was 5:34. This is about what I would expect from myself at threshold pace and I hoped to be able to hold onto this pace.

Well, not so much. My third mile was very slow-5:49. I got passed by Ken R. I knew that 5:49 is not good and that I should try to stay with Ken. My spirits weren't very low however, as I could see that I was not the only person struggling. In the 4th mile there is a turnaround and Teren came back the other day with death all over his face. No one was any further ahead of me than I would have expected so I kept clipping along. I was hoping that my strength would prevail, but I was dealing with a bunchof 30-35 year olds so I figured they were all running pretty sensibly.

Anyway, for the last three miles I chased Ken and tried to hold off Dennis. Mile 4 was 5:46 and mile 5 was 5:42.  I put in a 6:43 for the last 1.22 which is about 5:36 pace (I think). The last couple of miles have a gradual decline which  accounted for my increase in speed.

Anyway, times were slow all around by about a minute it seems. I was 2:53 behind Teren and only 0:56 behind Riley. Earlier in the year I was 1:09 behind Riley in a 5k. I'm happy with my effort, it shows that I'm still on the upswing despite taking some down time these last couple of weeks. I'm still, possibly, 45-60 seconds away from my previous best.