Wheeler Farm Loops

Nice Kenyan pacing. I'm impressed that you could run that slowly. Time to work on your math. In that extra hour you clearly could have run 4.3 more miles at that pace. Maybe 4.35.

Oh I do it all the time... after efforts like Sunday, its good to have a few days of VERY low intensity. Otherwise, you're just letting some residual fatigue hang around for no reason.

Good job Jake! I LOVE jogging.

It is refreshing knowing elites run at jogging paces sometimes too :) Hope your legs are recovering

You didn't even beat the 9-minute guy today!

Slooooooooowww it down. I like! You needed it any way

the only thing worse than a last-minute cancellation of a meeting is a meeting.

really though, it's annoying when you make the effort to get to work early if it turns out it's unnecessary -- giving up any amount of extra time in the morning is such a sacrifice for runners!

i guess that means you get to be more productive at work -- just like i'm doing right now.

Serious question - So even for you, I guess 9:10 pace is still more beneficial than not running at all? Sometimes I wonder this on my own superslow days...I guess just the process of running on tired legs is helping you out?

Serious answer - the pace wasn't necessarily so slow because I was tired... I feel OK but realize there is no point in really running any faster on days like today. I just went as slow as I possibly could while not running with weird form.

Everyone responds differently, but I find that really easy jogging does me a lot more good than complete rest. I definitely have a couple areas where is feels like someone took a couple swings at me with a baseball (maybe tee ball) bat (as should be expected when running that hard for an hour), so getting the blood flowing to those areas is what I really need to accelerate the recovery process. I'm probably not getting any aerobic benefit from it, but its allowing me to absorb and hopefully make some adaptations from the work I put in over the weekend.

Plus, I can't drive to work when the pollution is this bad!

Ok, so mostly a blood flow thing. I have noticed the same thing, about feeling better with a short easy run instead of a day off. I've heard/read a bunch of reasons for recovery runs just curious what your take was, thanks.

Yep, range of motion, blood flow, convenient transportation... and I like it. Those are my main reasons.

I think it is worth noting that you showed up on my sidebar under "Lone Faithfuls: (Need a comment)." I'm guessing the method of selection is more random than I thought. I tried to post the screen capture for a visual, but I am unable to do so.

haha, i think you go to that list when you update your "sidebar"... and I added some races to that :-)

Good that you're taking it easy and letting your body recover.

I noticed the plan to do both the USA 25k and Half Marathon Champs - wise decision. I think you'll benefit more from mixing it up in big races rather than winning lower key local races. That's not to undermine local races. But I think, in terms of racing, it's time for you to leave the comfort and security of the nest and get stuck in there with the big boys...

That's my plan for the most part. I'll have a balance between the two. My "peak / target" races will definitely be the national championship races. I'd love to run more of the national circuit, but the 5K-10K-15K-20K championships are all at inconvenient (ie. expensive/difficult travel) locations on the east coast. The 25K and HM champs will pretty much cover all of my travel/lodging, so its a no-brainer to get out to those and mix it up w/ the thoroughbreds. And then some good performances will hopefully open up some more doors for me. I'm really excited about the 25K - I think that is a distance that really suits me well and I could maybe sneak up on some people in that one.

And we are very fortunate to have a good local racing scene. I think our local USATF circuit will be strong and competitive this year, so it'll be fun to have some good races close to home as well.