So far today I have run 4.25 miles. It was deceptively slick this morning. The temperature was above freezing, but the trail was icy in many spots. It was a fine layer of ice and very spotty. It was difficult running on it. My approximate time was 36:39 for 4, but that includes some walking, sliding, and stopping to set up the course for the race later.
I ran from home to the start of the race. Mary Ann had some helpers today so my number was ready when I arrived. I did some stretching and a few strides. My total warmup was about 1.5 miles. Most people were in the 5K and seeing the competition, there was a high schooler that looked like he could be trouble. Fortunately Sasha and Bryce were in the 10K. The race started and within the first 100 meters we had a solid group of 4, Sasha, Bryce, me and the high school guy. I didn't check the pace until the half mile mark, but I felt like it was slow. I even thought to myself, "Why is Sasha going out so slowly?" I was pleasantly surprised when the time was 2:40 at the half mile. At that point Sasha and Bryce started to pull away a bit, and I stuck with the high school kid. At this point I was feeling really well. The pace felt easy and sustainable. I slowed down a bit and hit the first mile in 5:36. After about 1.25 I started to pull away from the other guy. By the turnaround, I had about a 10 meter lead on him. I hit the halfway point at 8:48. I tried to focus on the 2nd mile and keep the pace up. I find that it is the middle part of any race where I tend to slow down the most. With 1 mile to go, my time was 11:57 which would make my 2nd mile around 5:46. It was encouraging to see the time under 12 with a mile to go because I was hoping to go under 18. I closed with a 5:47 mile and an 8:56 second half for a 17:44.
I felt pretty good from start to finish and even feel like I could have pushed it a little harder in the last mile. I had already put a significant gap on the second place guy and didn't feel the need to push too hard. My splits were pretty consistent as well considering the second half is slightly uphill the entire way. This is very encouraging and lends support to Sasha's thought that consistent, slow, daily mileage can improve your running time significantly without speedwork. My last real race (not including the icy MLK Jr. Run) was Dec. 31st, and I ran an 18:37 off of sporadic training. I was running about 3-4 times a week and hitting around 20 miles per week. The past month I have been getting 6-7 miles a day consistently with about 2 total miles of faster paced running and no real speedwork. Today I dropped 53s off of that time. The consistency and higher mileage is paying off.
After the race, I did a 1.5 mile cooldown along the trail. I helped clean up a bit after the awards and headed home with Sasha for another 1.25 for a total of 11.6 for the day. | 