This morning I drove up to Idaho Falls to run a 10k that was
actually only 5.62 miles (pretty short). I was tired because I was up
till midnight doing some work on one of our systems. I got to IF
around 8:30 and warmed-up for a mile, and I knew then that I just
didn't have it today. I was real tired with the extra hours at work,
and the 90 plus miles running this week. I wanted to put in some high
mileage this week to test and make sure my achilles really is better
and can handle the high miles again. The push off is getting better on
my right leg, and it doesn't hurt so that's good. My goal today
was just to keep every mile under a 6 minute mile pace, and I did
accomplish that. The course was flat with a lot of turns. First
mile I did 5:52 felt okay just really tired in the legs. I was in
second place right behind Pat who won the race (Jeff Shadley knows
Pat). Next Mile was through a subdivision with a lot of turns (5:51)
pace, again I felt tired, my brain,eyes,arms everything. Mile 3 was
5:53 still not really feeling my best and I think I could have really
pushed it but the desire wasn't there, maybe because I was all alone.
At this point Pat was about 30 seconds ahead of me. Mile 4 we started
getting some snowfall and some head wind 5:56, but I felt at this point
I was loosing up a bit in the legs (Pat was even further ahead at this
point). Mile 5 felt really easy at 5:51 and I really should have
pushed harder. I think knowing at this point that I know I wasn't
going to compete for first place I sort of eased up or lost interest.
Now the course was .58 short so I came in at 32:58. I should have kept
running until 6.2 to see what my time I would have had for a 10k. Oh
well, I wasn't thinking. After the race I ran a 2 mile cool-down
with Pat. He's a neat gentlemen and very, very talented. I really
liked spending time with him, he's a great athlete. I did wear my
Fast Running Blog apparel during the race and my jacket after, and did
get comments about it. I was really trying to advertise our site and
image. People commented how fast I ran and how awesome I did, but I really knew the real true that this wasn't even close to what I can accomplish.
I drove 50 miles home and did another 3.1 miles right when I got home just to loosen up after the drive. Overall
not really doing a lot of speed lately and coming off the achilles
injury, I shouldn't be too disappointed because I know I have better
times ahead. I haven't really ran a lot of short races lately so this
is good training. Ran a couple 100m strides later that evening just, because I was outside.
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