sub-3 or blow-up trying

10 miles on the TM...

1st set:  2 mile warm-up (8:30, 8:15)

2-minute rest

2nd set:  4 miles (8min, 7:41, 7:25, 7:08)

5-minute rest

3rd set:  4 miles (8min, 7:41, 7:25, 6:53/mp)

Was a bit stiff and sore at first.  Felt stronger with each set.  Like my new shoes.

High 30's outside!  Would love to have been able to run hard, but I'm still in recovery mode from the weekend.  Did 5-miles easy + weights w/legs.  Plan to run again in the evening.

With the increased mileage, I've let go of following a strict diet.  Still plan on eating healthy, but doesn't seem to be the time to skimp on calories and try to lose weight.  Lost 5 lbs., but it's causing me to lose energy as well.  I'll keep running hard, eating healthy, and let weight take care of itself.

5 more recovery miles on the treadmill. 

Weather in the high 30's today.  Had a window of time, so really wanted to get a strong tempo in.  Took me forever to get warmed up- 2.5 miles.  Legs were still a little stiff from squats yesterday.  Decided to go for the route with the big hill.  Took off and felt extremely slow and sluggish.  Told myself I'd keep going if I hit the first mile marker under 6:30...did it in 6:25.  Told myself I'd continue if I hit the 3-mile marker under 20- did so as well.  Didn't feel fast, but was doing ok.  Went ahead and completed the workout...

1st 5 miles:  35:12/7:02 pace (pr for this route...keep inching my times down each week)

- 2 minute break-

2nd 5 miles:  34:28/6:54 pace (pr by more than 30 sec...6:28 on mile 10)

 Again, felt terribly sluggish (legs, not breathing), yet can't get discouraged with the results.  Plan on another quick run in the evening...Ran 4 more this evening on the TM...kept it slow, yet felt pretty good.

Weight:  177lbs (maintained weight this week while being a little less cautious with diet)

50 degrees today!  Headed out for a run with Rick.  Had a bit of a scare...while talking stepped in a pothole and twisted my ankle a bit.  Felt tender, but kept a slow pace through a 5-mile run and gained strength as we went.  I'll be careful the next day or two.  Not too much swelling, so things should be fine.  Plan on running a little later in the day...

Guys at the running store are getting sick of me.  Returned the under armor spectre's after 2 runs...felt great in the store, horrible on my second run.  Realized they are for high arches (I'm neutral).  Next day (today), returned saucony's and the guy was like I'm going to lose money off you.  Apologized, but still exchanged them for a pair of trigons- why experiment, when I know I feel good in the trigons.

5 more recovery miles on the TM.

Noon:  Rainy w/winds up to 30-40 mph.  Stayed inside and did an easy TM run + weights/legs.  8 miles total.  Plan to run again in the evening...

5 miles on TM:  8:30, 7:30, 3 x 6:44 (mp)

AM:  6 miles on the TM + 30 minutes weights/upper body.  Think I'll run a 5-mile road race tomorrow, but will treat it more as a training run than a race.  No taper, run early morning, then give it a strong tempo effort late morning.  pr's not an issue, since my best time for a 5-mile road race is over 35 minutes.  Hope to keep 6:30ish pace, but much will depend on how hilly the course is.

Got up early and did a 5-mile warm-up.  It was still in the teens and I was just hoping things would warm-up a bit for the late morning road race...got home and did another 1/2 mile in the TM to loosen up the legs from the cold. 

By race time it was 26 degrees w/10-12 mph winds.  Decided to go with shorts.  I'll give my best on the race results.  It was all a bit confusing due to a missed turn as well as the times being 1-minute off for some reason. 

Mile 1:  6:15- We took off and ran the first stretch on road, then about 1/4 mile on icy trail with a couple bridges (not too icy) and then a hard road surface.  Felt good about the pace...very comfortable

Mile 2:  6:25- First part of this stretch went slightly uphill into Whites Woods and then back downhill through mostly clear trails.  One small section (.1 mile) was tough to gain footing in.  Again, felt strong.

Mile 3: 6:26- Back on a hard road surface.  Purposely kept a steady pace with hopes of "turning it on" more towards the 2nd half of the race.  Was happy to see my pace come in under 6:30.  Was holding about 10th place at this stage.

Mile 4: 7:09- Not a misprint in the time.  I actually turned it up a tad, but missed the turn.  I was running by myself against the traffic of another 200 runners or so and completely missed the turn arrow.  Someone against the grain yelled, "you running the race?"  Yes.  "You missed the turn!"  This caused a slight panic and I immediately turned back.  Two guys behind me missed the turn as well.  It costed me 2 places in the final standings and I'm guestimating about 40 seconds in my overall time.  In my final stated time I conservatively counted this mile as 6:30 which would still make it my slowest mile.

Mile 5:  6:17- This is where the really confusing part sets in.  I literally crossed the 4-mile mark with a 26:10 time.  Crossing the finish line, they posted my final time at 31:27.  This would have given me a 5:17 time for my final mile...definitely impossible.  Talking with the folks around me, they all felt their posted time was a minute off.  Who knows what happened?  Kind of frustrating.  I had my stopwatch on for the entire race and the times all seemed to match, but of course I forgot to punch stop at the finish, trusting they had their act together.  The final mile definitely felt like a mile and within a minute or so after finishing, I did look down and see 33 something on my watch and was like, "Ah!  Forgot to stop it!!" I'm giving myself a 6:17 (adding an extra minute, which is probably close to accurate...probably my best mile other than mile 1). 

Officially, their first posting gave me a 31:27 (due to complaints they are going to revisit it).  According to my guestimate, I ran a 32:27, but am going to mark it down as 31:48 to accomodate the wrong turn in mile 4.  I think I was fair to give it a 6:30.  Also, they put me down as 17th place, but there were two courses that blended together (3-miler, 5-miler) at the finish.  It was hard to tell how many in front of me were from the 3-mile race, but I started off with about 10-12 runners and nobody passed me (except for the 2 at the missed turn).  I was awarded 3rd place for my age division.  Overall, a great experience, yet would have loved to know exactly what my time was...might run a little bit of a recovery in the evening.

Ran another 4.5 on the TM.  Decided to get it done while my legs were still fresh.  Included a 3-mile tempo @ 6:15 pace.  Felt good.  Also, spoke with someone who thinks the last mile of our race today was more like .85 miles...makes sense.  Good week of running. 

Found out the course is 4.8 miles...they recorded my time as 31:17.  Take away the missed turn (39 seconds) and my time is pretty close to 30:38.  This gives me a pace of approx 6:23 for the race.