Q1- Sunday Marathon Pace Run- I screwed this one up. I ran too hard right out of the gate, and didn't have enough gas left in the tank to finish strong. I did 10 of the planned 13 miles at MP, but I felt like I was coming apart and I really didn't want to blow up and kill my psyche. I also cut my cool-down by 3 miles and pulled a total of 17 miles today instead of the 20 I was hoping for. Whatever. Here is how it all worked out: 3.75 mi warm-up with a couple strides, then 10 miles at Marathon Pace (a touch fast) 6:12, 6:07, 6:12, 6:22 (hill), 6:15, 6:16, 6:15, 6:11, 6:12, 6:08. My legs felt very heavy early on in this run, probably for two reasons: I just ran 101 miles last week, and I have had limited sleep over the last couple days. I should have run all the splits closer to 6:20 pace, but I started out too hard then got locked into that pace and ended up screwing the whole thing up. I am planning on doing this same run again in two weeks, but hopefully by then I can run it with my head. It was still a productive run. I closed it with a few easy miles with Rusty.
Q2- Cruise Intervals- The workout was on paper as 4 x 1 mile @ T pace with 60s rest between each, then 5:00 of easy running, then 3 x 1 mile @ T pace w/60s rest again. It didn't totally workout out like that, for a couple reasons. First: I ran the first mile with Montgomery as he started out his own tempo workout. We ended up doing that one way too fast (for me). Next, I had some stomach issues all day which reared their ugly head after the third rep. All told, I probably averaged closer to 90s rest after each repeat and not 60s as scheduled. This was a tough place to run tempo location w/lots of rolling hills and turns. This is what I came up with for splits: 5:32, 5:42, 5:51, 5:49, 5:43, 5:47, 5:44. With warm-up, cool-down and the jog in the middle I ended up with 13+ total miles.
Race-Saturday was my first tune-up race in preparation for the Vermont City Marathon. Rusty, Justin and I headed up to Lebanon for the 10th annual Shamrock Shuffle 5k. It has become a pretty big event over the last few years with over 600 runners finishing the event. We linked up with a pretty large group and did a 3-mile warm-up, then everyone went their own way to do strides and dynamic drills. We didn't find out until late that the race actually got postponed 15-minutes because they were still letting people register.
Once the race finally got underway it was the typical start where 20 people going flying out to the lead who have no business being there. They ultimately relinquished that responsibility to Keith Drake who stayed there for the win in 15:40. I settled down about a half mile in and found myself running in 5th place. Shortly before the mile I got passed by Rich Smith of Enfield, but I also passed Greg Hagley and maintained 5th. That was all the passing that would happen as I stayed right behind Rich until I was done. I went through the mile in 5:23. The second mile contains a lot of turns and a few rolling hills. I got through the two-mile mark in 10:57 (5:37), and knew that my chances of going sub-17 were slim. The third mile is the hardest with a lot of rolling hills and a ton of wind. I ended up running the final 1.1 miles at 5:40 pc and finished with a 17:11.
I definitely would have liked to go under 17:00, but it was not to be today. It was pretty cold out with a 15 MPH wind directly in your face at times. I would call those tough conditions on a rolling course. I still got a pretty big PR on a certified course. I will take it. I am pleased with where I am at going into my biggest part of training for VCM. It was awesome to hang out and joke around with everyone when the racing was all done.
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