Every Run is a Great Run!

A great day for a run today.  I was thinking about the poor folks overheating running Boston today and feeling pretty happy about our 50 degrees and sunny.

Warmed up around 3 miles with Kim then did some intervals - 15 x 90s @ 10K pace with 90s active rests in between repeats. Felt great doing these and felt like I could have done quite a few more.  Nice to only have to do 10K pace for 90s.  Not exactly sure what my 10K flat pace is so did the first 10 around 6:30-6:45 pace.  These felt plenty easy so the last 5 I cheated a little and dipped under 6:30 pace. 

7:55/155 (nice to see my ave HR staying below 160 for pace below 8 min/mi) 

Six easy garmin-free miles in a light rain around noon-ish at work. Did 10 x 10s hill sprints toward the end.

Went out around 11am, warmed up 2 miles running down to the river bottoms then did some fartlek intervals.  Plan was for 6-8 x 3min @ 10K pace with 2min jog rests.

I wasn't feeling the love today, have a bit of upset stomach for some reason and starting having nausea/GI problems on the 5th repeat so I stopped at 6.  All repeats in the 6:30-6:45 pace range, mostly around 6:40. Hopefully I'll feel better on Saturday for the 10K.

7:47/161 

Easy 6 miler at work. No watch.

Ran 3 easy miles about half with my soon-to-be-married son Tyler. Legs felt pretty heavy but seems like they always do the day before a race.  Did a few strides along the way.

Found out the 10K doesn't start until 11am. Why so late? So likely going to be awfully warm and I really dislike warm races, I'll take 30 degrees over 70 anytime. 

8:47/133 

This was one tough course and race for me.  It had all the things I don't much care for in a race: heat (70+ degrees), wind (very stiff from the South), hills (in particular lots of uphill late in the race), late start (11am), and incorrect distance (6.35 according to most everyone with GPS). But on the positive side I got a great workout and worked harder than I would have if it were just a training run.

First 3 miles were nice with more downhill than up and some tailwind, last 1/2 of race was killer with that stiff south breeze and LOTS of uphill the last 2 miles.  And it's always a heart-breaker when you're watch says the race should be over but you get a couple "bonus" 10th of miles tacked on to the end.

I faded pretty bad the last half but I guess the good news was that the runners around me were fading worse. I passed about 5 or 6 guys and didn't get passed by anyone so I'll count that as positive. Overall I'm OK with this race, but I don't think I'll run it again.

Overall time/pace: 45:25/7:09 (6.35 miles)

Splits: 6:49, 6:50, 6:50 (headwind), 7:13 (worst of headwind), 7:36 (worst of the uphill), 7:30 (still plenty of uphill), 2:36 (7:23 pace still uphill to the finish except for last .10)