not giving up on the comeback

I need a good week of eating and running.  I had a good one last week and i need to sting another on top of that one.  I wasn't TOO bad over the weekend but i still need to get better with the late snacking.  

5 before getting the daughter from school - felt a little sluggish and my left foot was a little tight.  Otherwise it was just another easy run.  I tacked a mile onto the normal 4 mile route. 

5 @ 7:21 ave pace

Grabbed a nice relaxed run after Chrys got home.  Rain had come through earlier and it was only in the mid 50's with light winds.  This one was pretty fun. 

5.4 @ 7:09 ave pace

really kind of tired and pokey today but I went out and had a decent run

8.4 @ 7:07 ave pace

felt ok on the run - legs a little achy but it was ok

4.6 @ 7:07 ave pace

after work and library I did another 4.2 tonight

4.2 @ 7:08 ave pace

Had a nice little run this evening after getting home from an open house at the kids' school.  I can't believe it is almost summer break for them.  I couldn't be more proud of them. 

I skipped my run after lunch cause I was tired and really didn't want to go out.  So I tacked on an extra couple miles as a "punishment".  :)  It turned out it was just a really nice run.  I think I prefer running in the evening. The temps were still around 80  but the sun was setting and that makes a huge diff. 

 10.5 @ 7:04 ave pace

really tight today - I'm not sure if I'll go out again or not

4.2 @ 7:23 ave pace

yes I did another little run after work and before getting the kids.  I'm sore for some reason. 

but tonight is homemade pizza night!! yeah !

4.2 @ 7:09 ave pace

This race was snowed/iced out on Feb Valentines day weekend.  And they rescheduled it to today.  It is a pretty fast course, so I didn't want to miss it.  There was talk about going on a vacation trip this weekend, but I'm glad that fizzled out and I was able to do it.  It is defenitely a PR course in the past. 

Going into this race I haven't done any 5K pace running, which is a big gap in my training that I need to fix.  But I felt good coming into the race, more or less.  The warm-up was long enough and felt ok.  The plan was to go out by feel.  In a short race I generally go out on a faster pace and then try to hang on.  I figure I'll hurt at the end no matter how conservatively I take the first mile.  Mile one was right at 5:30, which was good.  Now I had to concentrate on hanging on and trying to maintain a pace I could keep up.  2nd mile is pretty flat but somehow last year I slowed a bit.  I did it last year and did it this year again.  I think I get scared of the pace and how long I can hold it.  But I passed a couple guys and gained on a couple others.  Mile 2 came in at 11:15 for a 5:45 mile.  3rd mile has a medium size up and a nice slightly downhill last half mile.  It is a matter of making it through the hill without totally blowing up.  I wanted to stop several times in the last two miles...I was getting close to redlining it.  I crested the hill and really wanted to throw it into my final gear, but there wasn't much to be had.  I tried my best.  One dude passed me but other than that I maintained my gaps to the others in front.  I rolled in at 17:31.  A new 5K PR! 

So it is a new PR and I am very happy with that.  It is 12 or 13 seconds faster than this race last year (and it was run in 40-50 deg weather - which I think is worth 10 seconds vs this heat and humidity) But isn't as fast as I'd like to be.  I need to work harder on my speed work.