Run for your life!

Solid 10 mile TM run. First four easy. Then 7:53, 7:41, 7:30 and 6:58 to finish. Trying to teach myself mentally that sevens are no longer fast, but easy. Six's are fast.

Pretty much the same run as yesterday with two additional easy miles at the end.

2 easy miles. Then I was supposed to do 4 miles at 6:40. I did two, then dialed the TM up to 6:00 (10mph). After 0.4 I was dead. Walked, jogged for 1 minute and then put it back at 6:40 and then steadily increased it so my average for the 4 miles was still 6:40. I wanted to do a 5k using those first three miles in under 20 minutes, but it ended up at about 20:15. Then I recovered for about a mile and did three 1/2 mile repeats with 1/2 mile recovery in between at 6:00, 6:18 and 6:40 for 10 miles total. Hard workout, but glad I did it as usual.

Added two easy miles in the afternoon.

Run Spin Run.

I had a great experience today running a 5k. I wasn't sure how well I would do since I didn't really think it was worth it to taper my training for a 5k. I did speedwork on Thursday and ran and spun and ran for 1 1/2 hours on Friday. Anyway, I ran this race (which is a very hilly course, not a fast 5k) back in 2009 and got 57th place of about 450 runners and ran it in 22:25. Today I ran the race in 20:59.8 and got 17th place overall and 2nd in my age group. In terms of statistics this was probably my best race ever. I really think my additional miles are paying off, especially mentally. I was able to push myself just hard enough and still have a kick at the end.

Ran 10 miles after the race through hilly terrain with Troy and Terry. It was tough after the effort of the 5k, but good to still fit in a long run today.