Practice To Suffer So Racing Becomes Easy

Morning:  5 miles Ridges Rd to wild life sanctuary.  Saw a huge doe and her fawn less than 5 feet away.  She just stood there and looked at me for a good 30 seconds or so and then started walking slowly away.  I've never seen a wild deer so tame.  The trails were all single track either woodchips or sand.  The trails made for a really slow pace, but I wasn't up for running much faster anyway.  Avg pace 8:59

Evening:  4 miles on Lakeshore Dr. Legs felt trashed from all the hard trail running the past couple of days.  Planning to take a day off tomorrow to play some golf if the weather cooperates.  Then driving back home to Fort.  It's been a very nice vacation.  Avg pace 7:47 

Morning:  9.92 miles w/6x800m @ 5K-10K pace.  Felt terrible on this workout even with the day off yesterday.  The legs were really flat and I seemed to be over heating with the 80 degree temperatures and 100% humidity.  Did a .67 mile warm-up interval in 4:10.  Went into 6x800 after a .25 mile easy jog.  2:50.2, 2:47.6, 2:40.5, 2:55.7, 2:59.4, 3:08.8

Not the workout I was hoping for, but I'm happy I was able to hang tough on a very bad day.

Evening:  6.47 miles in town loop + 4 striders Avg Pace 6:54 

Morning:  8.92 miles K to Cremery with Voss.  Humid and hot, but the sun stayed behind the clouds making it easier.  Avg 7:04 pace

The body is already rebounding back from the high mileage wear down I experienced this past week.  It feels good to feel fresh again.  

Evening:  5.4 miles in town loop with another heat index over 100.  Avg pace 7:04

Another hot and humid 10K led to a less than ideal time, but another win for me.  This one I won by a minute.  I guess I should have run the 5K for more competition.  Not many people are running 10K's in this kind of heat.  This is my 4th 10K in the past 6 weeks, so I guess you could say I'm getting used to running in hot weather.  At first I was a little upset with the time since I've only run 50 miles this week, but the heat was a huge factor in this one.

 The course has some small to medium rolling hills, but it's not very flat.  The 10K follows the 5K course for two loops, so I got out to a fast start running with the 5K runners.  The 1st mile was a 5:26, but I was happy to finally get out hard in a race.  Something I need to start doing more often.  A runner by the name of Kimundo who has a personal PR of 2:14 was leading way.  I ran on his shoulder through 1.5 miles where he gapped me a little at the 1st water station.  I got some water down the wrong tube and lost about 10 meters of distance on him.  Mile 2 wound up being slow with the coughing fit going 5:45, but I was also already feeling the heat and Kimundo was picking up the pace.  He's a good runner, but he recently only ran a 1:16:15 1/2 marathon so I knew he wasn't at full speed.  I thought he might be running the 5K and not the 10K.  As I came through the 5K finish a runner passed me right at the line and I didn't see Kimundo standing around anywhere so, I assumed he was around the corner leading the way in the 10K.  At this point I was struggling up a short steep hill and questioning if I should be going the whole 10K.  I had been feeling run down the past week from high miles and tough trail running.  I came through mile 3 in 6:01, so I was still somewhat holding it together.  Mile 4 was a repeat of the 1st mile in topography, but not in time.  I dropped a big goose egg in that mile running a 6:07.  Lucky for me no one was even close and I figured I was still contending for 2nd place, maybe 1st since I couldn't see Kimundo anywhere up front.  Mile 5 got really ugly splitting a 6:18, I didn't let it get me down though.  I was really overheating and I was fighting a side ache, so I'm certain the effort was max.  The last mile was all about just staying strong splitting a 6:06.  I finished with a very easy kick and almost had to sit down at the end of the race.  I managed to walk it off, but had to sit down under the shelter for a few minutes.  The last .2 (6:33 pace)

Hopefully, I can find some magic to run faster in a couple weeks for the Madison Mini, otherwise it could be tough to finish in the top 20.