Boston Strong

After a couple days of rest & battling a cold, this run was encouraging to me.  Taper plan called for 6 miles at easy pace (which I have determined to be 8:30).  A half mile into the run, looked at watch & was running a 7:30 pace, so I slowed down a little.  For the first time in a long time, my legs felt fresh & ready to roll.  I decided to let them go a little, as long as things felt easy.

7:52, 7:35, 7:32, 7:09, 6:36.followed by a 1,6 mile cooldown @ 9:20 pace.

Since I was feeling good, I decided to let it go a little the last mile.  Even the 6:36 pace felt comfortable and I did not feel like I was pushing things at all.  I was tempted to keep going a few faster miles and see how I held up ... but quickly reminded myself I was resting my legs to run faster/longer ... not training them to do that!  Felt good, and by keeping the mileage down, I think this still classifies as a recovery run ... tomorrow is another day of rest, but might do an easy 3, as I skipped that on Monday due to weather, having a cold, and a general lack of desire to go out and run 3 measly miles in miserable weather.

Easy run, mixed in a few strides, calf felt a little tight at end.

 8:27, 7:45, 8:24, 7:21, 8:21 ... 8:05 AP

1 mile on tm, spin class, 2 miles on tm ... exciting

Went out for an adventurous run along shores of Lake Lanier ... water level is way down, we need rain, but it does open up new terrain!  One year I would like to run the entire shorline around the lake when it is low, but that will require some support and getting wet ... there are 692 miles of shoreline ... but I will do it!  maybe  :)

Other than navigating rocks with agility training, powering through quicksand, hurdling and ducking dock cables, and navigating water inlets ... this was a peaceful soft surface run on a beautiful fall day.  There was a nice cabin cruiser anchored in a secluded cove, no one was visible, but it was creating a nice gentle wake ... Wonder what was going on in there!  Lol

 After the first 3 miles, the remaining 5 that were out and back, were definitely less runnable!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/121526104

 Running an ATC cross country 5k in the morning with Alex, hoping to pace him to a new PR, I am sure we will be racing each other the last tenth of a mile ... I am a little nervous about that!
 

Nice flat course on a beautiful fall day! Plan was to pace Alex to a pr of 19:30, was 19:55.  First 2 were 6:15, 6:25, he was 2steps ahead of me the whole way.  At Mile 2, my calf was feeling a little tight, so I told him to finish strong, I might not go with him.  He told me to toughen up! I stayed close, but let him go, the last thing I needed to do was find myself on the losing end of an all out sprint the last tenth.  I had told him last night we would race the last tenth, and he told me to 'bring it on!'

His pace slowed a little the last mile, but he looked over his shoulder a couple times to see how close I was.  I honestly believe that no matter how fast I would have run, he had no intentions of letting me pass him! He finished in 19:35, I was 10 seconds behind him, probably 5 at the 3 mile mark.  I refrained from a finishing kick, but he already had me beat.

I am proud of him, and actually am glad he just had a 20 second pr, the more times he gets a new pr will only motivate him to keep working harder, versus having an A+performance and having a let down in his next race.  Slow and steady is improvement is best.  His mind was mostly on his homecoming dance tonight anyway ... a much more exciting event!  Just being right behind him made him push a little harder ... the first of many times I will be chasing him I am sure!

I had a chat with the female masters winner after the race, he was listening pretty intently, she is also a trainer/running coach.  I think the conversation inspired him, because when we got in the car, he asked  me to put a training plan together for him for the winter to take him to the next level.  Good stuff, I hope he follows through with the commitment ... it will help us both improve if we are doing several key workouts a week together.