It's been a while since I've posted anything. Not that I haven't been running at all... actually on the contrary, I've been getting decent mileage... I just haven't been doing anything very exciting. That's about to change soon.
After a nice build of fitness for the early spring races, Sasha took a fun spring break to Puerto Rico and cruised the Southern Caribbean. It was an awesome two-week vacation trip and a nice break from running.
Once we got back from our little binge-fest, my fitness was shot. Training on the come back was much slower than I wanted. Several weeks in the 60s was good, but not a lot of speed. Just basing. On the positive, I actually placed well in a few of the recent CARA races...
5/7 - Quarryman 10Mi @ 1:00:54
I ran this thing almost exactly 3 minutes slower than last year! Kind of pathetic. It was just too close to that vacation and I didn't have enough time to gear up for it. I resorted to running it as a tempo. Temps were in the low 70s, and humidity was a little nasty. That course and it's hills are very unforgiving. In the end, I struggled to cling to a 6:00 pace. By some miracle I wound up placing 4th OA and 2nd AG. I ran completely solo - not being able to see anyone in front of me or behind me after the second mile. All in all, I wasn't pleased with the time, but I wasn't expecting much better and I only cared about placement.
5/28 - SF10 @ 57:25
I actually really wanted Soldier Field to go well and originally had high expectations. Unfortunately, I knew ahead of time that I wasn't in PR shape. The quality simply wasn't there. Pace-wise, I managed to have a more respectable run than Quarryman. I kept close to 5:40-45's the whole race, which was a good effort since the wind was early and I didn't have anyone to work with after the first 2 miles. A southerly wind, temps in mid-70's, and high humidity all probably handicapped it about 30-45 seconds. Still well off from last year's 55:35. Again by some miracle, I won my AG and placed 17th OA.
6/4 - Cosley Zoo 10K @ 34:44
It was only a week out from SF10, so I'm sure I was still recovering a bit. Also, it was another race in the mid-70's and with high humidity (seems to be the theme here). AND, competition was lacking once again. After the first 5K, I found myself in 3rd place with the nearest runners about 45 seconds on either side of me. I merely settled into a 5:35-5:40 pace and left some in the tank in case I needed to defend myself. 3rd OA, 2nd AG.
SO... the last two months have been totally blah. Not a lot of speed work. Tempos in races. And everything else just being steady basing in the low 60's.
Which brings me to today. On the heels of a 16 mile run yesterday in 90+ degrees... I had the nerve to cut loose and do an impromptu tempo run this afternoon. Weather was about as good as I could ask for: low 80's, no humidity, and no wind. I went out for 11 miles and dropped 6 of them at a 5:42.7 average (5:48.9, 5:46.3, 5:43.9, 5:40.4, 5:42.4, 5:34.3). A nice progression to it and I was strong the whole way.
Looking ahead: my primary motivation is three fold at the moment...
- Continue basing for another month, while injecting some more speed work into the mix.
- I'm going to the cabin a little earlier than normal this year. Conveniently that coincides with one of my bucket list races: the infamous Boilermaker 15K in Utica, NY! Sasha and I were able to gain late entries to the race, and I'd really like to run a respectable time there. It's pisser of a race... very hilly and usually hot... but I've been wanting to run this thing for a long time now.
- Towards the end of July I'll start ramping things up for October.
Ultimately, I'm racing a fair amount but they've been far from A-Races. At this point the only one that I really care about will be the Chicago Marathon in October. All else is just filler and muddling through.
