Doing What I Can

7 pretty good miles after work tonight, very steady and rhythmic pace. very cold and somewhat windy though. splits:

1- 6:56.4

2- 6:59.1

3- 7:03.3

4- 6:52.6

5- 6:52.6 same exact split

6- 6:51.0

7- 6:47.5

total-- 48:22, 6:54.5 pace

some speed today, started out with a 6:46.9 mile to get the legs moving then dropped immediately into a 5:07.3 mile, really thought i was gonna break 5 minutes cuz i felt like i was moving on this one. if it was warmer than 38 degrees today that prolly would have happened, really pushed the pace and laid the hammer down. then did an easy mile then threw down a .3 in 1:30, which is 5:00 pace. ran .7 easy then threw down a 2:30 800 meter split (5:00 pace), cooled down for 1.5, all in all a very good workout, was happy with the speed i was able to show today.

easy run this morning, legs were kinda tired plus it was super cold and windy. splits:

1- 7:11.6

2- 7:08.9

3- 7:14.05

4- 7:14.05 (exact same split down to the hundredths, usually i round up or down, these splits were exactly the same, kind of a neat little coincidence..i guess you could say i was dialed in at that pace haha)

5- 7:12.0

6- 7:28.2 (had nothing for the hill today)

total-- 43:28, 7:15 avg pace

5 in 34:57 today, 6:59 avg pace. pretty nice weather, 50 degrees. i felt pretty crappy though, just kind of sluggish and not really feeling a good pace runnin. prolly just a little fatigue, itll pass.

5 easy ones after work, cold, 30 with wc of 20 and some snow from earlier today on the ground. splits:

1- 7:01.6

2- 7:01.5 even splits, i have been doing this lately

3- 6:55.7

4- 6:58.5

5- 7:06.5

TOTAL-- 35:03, 7:00.5 avg pace

3 in 7:19 pace, 21:58, gettin colder, 20 degrees but at least it was sunny

What to say about this one...been watching the weather all week and it appeared like it would be 38 at the start and 90% rain chance, 38 is tough cuz it is the cutoff for shorts/tights for me. just before race time i looked and it was 42, it felt decent as well so the wind chill was minimal, maybe only 40, rain was light too. just about perfect for this time of year. (I love running in the rain..even cold rain). so i went with shorts, racing top, arm warmers, gloves and hat.

Got started pretty good out the gate, about five of us guys got out together. answered several surges from the other guys in the early miles as they were keeping me honest...first mile, i was kinda shocked, 5:05, a little faster than i anticipated but i think the mile marker was off a little bit. 2nd mile was 5:39.6, which the marker was accurate for 2 miles but long compared to the first mile, so the 2 mile accurate split was 10:45, a very decent split. at this point there were 2 leaders out front and a chase pack of me and 2 other guys,  i made my decisive move from the chase pack at this point and tried to pick off at least the 2nd place guy, plus i knew a pr was close so i wanted to finish strong. last 1.1 was 5:38.9, finished 3rd place and was pleasantly surprised to see 16:23 flash on the clock.definitely gave it all i had and poured my guts into that last mile.

I was ecstatic, still am. I never thought id PR in december, but it was ok weather and i love the rain. still got some bounce in my old shoes. The course may have been a little short, i heard several guys complain about this, and in measuring it quick, it indeed probably was a touch short, either way, i ran way too good to complain about a short course and to not count this as a PR. like ive said several times, im a runner, i show up and run, its the race directors job to worry about distance. i do this for fun, so if its billed as a 5k race, i will count it as such. plus, this course was so hilly that im even more impressed with my time. even if it was short, id of still been well under 16:45, possibly even PR territory. I plan to smoke all my pr's next year anyways, so this one wont stand for long, in the meantime im just gonna enjoy a great effort and a solid race! Very stoked right now!