Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

55F.  7:13 AP.  Ahh.  Well, I couldn't resist turning this into a big workout with these cool temps.  It was 106 degrees on Friday, but an ice-cold 55 this morning.  I ran 14 easy and then wanted to pick it up to a tinman tempo (6:37) for the last 6.

First 14 were mostly 7:30s

Last six were a hair under 6:30 AP.  Splits were 6:37, 6:33, 6:27, 6:26, 6:31, 6:23.

A little faster than I needed/wanted, but for once the legs actually responded to my commands instead of mocking me.  They never felt drained and I think I stayed within myself pretty well.  I believe 6 days is enough to fully recover (in time for the 10K) but I guess we'll see.  I feel pretty good now, a few hours later, so I think with some easy running this week I'll be ready to roll.

58F, 8:45 AP.

AM - 66F, 10 @ 7:55 AP.  Time to start mixing in some doubles to get my mileage up.  I think I will try to run on base at lunch and see how that goes.

PM - 87F, S 16-25 mph.  4 @ 8:28 AP.  Plodded around on the jogging trail on post during lunch.  At least I got something done today.

68F.  7:45 AP.  Grinded out another 15 miles in the dark.  Grind is putting it mildly, I will definitely need these next 2 days for recovery after piling up a bunch of miles right after a hard long run on Sunday.

67F, N 21-27 mph.  8:40 AP.  Recovery day 1 of 2.  As achy/heavy as my legs felt yesterday, I figured 2 recovery days would be better than 1.  When you haven't raced in 4 months, you kind of want to do well.

I'm thinking A goal of sub-38, B goal of sub-39.  It might be a little hilly based on what I've seen on Fort Sill, but not sure yet.

57F, NNE 15-25 mph.  8:30s or so, the cool air felt great.

Should be decent weather for the race - low 60s and humid, but overcast.  Not perfect but nothing that would prevent a PR at least.  Looking forward to it.

61F, 88%, overcast.  Meh, I give myself 4 out of 10 on this one.  Not quite where I want to be, but given the course/conditions, my highest mileage week in awhile and recent lack of track workouts, it was ok.

1 - 6:05 - First mile was flat.  I committed to sub-38 pace for mile 1 to see how it felt.  It didn't knock me out but I started to get the feeling another 5 miles like that was too much to ask.

2 - 6:21 - This mile was on rocky gravel roads and had one nasty uphill, but the effort level probably equaled mile 1.

3 - 6:02 - Back on roads, and got back some of the climb from last mile with a little bit of downhill.

4 - 6:33 - Wow.  I mean this was a net uphill of 30 feet, but still, I was starting to lose it.  Good news is I caught up to Army guy, who was in 6th, and we both started pushing each other.  He would pass me on the uphills and I would pass him going down.  We would stay within a few feet of each other until the end; it really kept me motivated trying to keep up.

5 - 6:27 - Still feeling weak but battling Army guy kept me at least pushing a bit.  Miles 4 and 5 were on the Howitzer trail which had a bunch of annoying ups and downs.  I can try to blame that but the truth is the fitness was not quite there.  In general, you probably shouldn't be going slower than your HM pace on a 10k.

6 - 6:09 - He picked up the pace and I followed.  I was surprised I was able to find that gear, and saw that sub-39 was a real possibility.

6.29 - 1:34 (5:29 pace) - I thought I was going to catch him but just as I was within a couple feet of him, my legs went Julia Lucas on me and he ran away.  I saw the finish line clock tick past 39 minutes.  Boooo!

Polling a couple other people, the average was about 6.3 miles on the Garmins - anywhere from 6.28 to 6.33 miles....hmmm.  My overall AP was 6:14 by my Garmin, enough to get my B goal of sub-39, but I can't really count it based on GPS alone, even if the course was potentially a little long....we'll have to stick with 39:11 which is still a small PR.

I think I have to face facts and realize I can no longer just take huge chunks of time off my PRs anymore.  It's going to get harder and harder to drop time, which I knew would happen.  I just wish I could've had a stronger showing to make me feel better about some of my goals.  The good news is the racing season is just starting down here, and I usually peak in the Spring (Boston?)