Morning: 3 mile warm-up, knee a little sore on the warm-up. Didn't bother me during the race though. The achilles did well during the race, warm-up and cooldown. I tweaked the hamstring a little in the race, but nothing too bad. Wow- that was quite the injury report!
Not a bad day for racing in WI this time of year, temps in the low to mid 30's, 10 mph wind out of the North. The race starts off on a steep hill then takes a sharp right after a 100 meters making for a tricky start, but the rest of the course was rolling hills on a 1 loop 5K (actually 3 miles not a 5K). They advertised the race as a 10K, but my Garmin and several others show 6 miles. I hate it when race directors mess up on distances. There is really no good excuse for it, a lot of people are paying money for an honest course. So anyway the mile markers were all off distance.
I got off to a comfortable 5:40 1st mile with it being mostly downhill and with the wind. This exactly what I was shooting for and I figured it would be a pace to try and average for my current fitness. I was sitting in what I thought was 6th, but later learned one of the leaders was just a pacer for the 1st 5K.
I came through the 2 mile in 5:37 going mostly uphill and at this point I made a move to catch the two leaders because I kept seeing them looking back, it motivated me to run a little harder. The runners around me happened to be UW-Whitewater Alums that recognized me from my 1st year of collegiate running. They remembered me, but I didn't recognize or remember them, which made feel like an ass. To my credit memories did come back after the race.
Through the 3 mile it was now 1 leader, my fellow alums Ruffalo, Kyceke and myself. I managed to lead our pack to about 5 sec. behind the lead runner, but the wind and hill took a toll on me as I slowed to a 5:42. for the 3rd mile.
The leader put in a solid surge dropping Ruffalo and myself while Kyceke dropped off about 10 sec. behind us. I came through mile 4 in 5:34 (same downhill as the 1st mile) as we now started the 2nd lap of the 3 mile loop.
Between mile 4 and 5 Ruffalo who in his prime was a 2:25 marathon 31 10K guy dropped me. I maintained a smooth efficient effort, but I was lacking the threshold endurance to keep the 5:40 pace dropping back to a 5:45 pace now going into the wind and up hill. So sitting in 3rd place I thought if I can just stay relaxed through this portion I'll get some downhill for the last mile and maybe I can recover and surge for a strong finish. As I was thinking this a different runner passed me like I was standing still. I went with, but the left hamstring was tight and when I surged to go with I felt it tweak. I backed off a little as we finished the long hill climb and lost 10 seconds on 3rd place.
I maintained the same effort through mile 5 splitting a 5:46 and by now I knew it was damage control and no miracle surge to catch 3rd place. My last mile slightly downhill with the steep finishing hill was a 5:49 for a final time of 34:05 for 6 miles.
I was disappointed with the last 2 miles, but I ran stronger than last week and improved my average pace to 5:41, which is only a couple seconds off my best of 5:39 for the 10K. I debated running this race because the knee gave me trouble after last weekends race. I also don't normally like to race two weekends in a row, plus an 8K/10K back to back isn't ideal. However, I had someone to watch Jameson and the next two weeks doesn't hold any potential races in my area. So, with basically the whole week being low volume and easy running I thought maybe I could make the best of the situation by getting in a race on fresh legs, but also use it as my threshold/speed work for the week. It worked out to be an excellent effort and I can tell this down week and the back to back weekend racing really opened some doors for me. I'm excited to get back after the volume and marathon pace running for the next couple of weeks as I inch closer to Boston.
Night: 5 mile easy shake out | 