Trust The Process

Tempo run today during my lunch break on the treadmill (1.5 incline).

I was feeling under the weather this morning and my mom contacted me right when I got to work to say my dad was in the hospital.  It sounds like he is doing ok and I will probably head home to visit him tomorrow. All things considered, I wasn't expecting a good workout today.

I was surprised that the workout went very well.  1 warm up mile @ 9:00 pace, 6 miles @ 6:44 pace, 1 mile cool down @ 9:00 pace.  I still had a little bit left in the tank when I finished and this was much easier than the last tempo run when I could only run 4 miles at this pace.  Maybe it was the shoes (Kinvara vs Guide 5).

This was a confidence booster for Saturday's race.

6 easy miles on the treadmill during lunch.  avg pace was 8:30 (1.5 incline).  My legs felt pretty good today after yesterdays tempo run.

10 miles this morning outside along the banks.  It was foggy and humid at first, but felt nice for the second half of the run.  My legs felt dead for the first 4 miles again, but I felt good for the last 6.  Avg pace was 8:04.

Also on a positive note, my dad was released from the hospital last night.  sounds like he will be back to normal soon.

4 recovery miles on the treadmill at lunch (1.5 incline).  my run got cut short as i had to deal with a work email that i received on my blackberry mid run.  avg pace was 9:00. 

5 recovery miles on the TM (1.5 incline, 8:57 avg pace)

15k tomorrow evening

It was a great race today.  The race was at 5pm this evening along the Delaware River canal towpath.  the course was very scenic and although the path was only about 6 feet wide, there were only 115 runners that were sent off in 4 waves so it wasn't an issue.

i was in the first wave of 25 runners. 3 guys jumped ahead at the start.  i stayed with them for a tenth of a mile but realized quickly that they were much faster than me.  i slowed my pace closer to my goal pace of 6:50 per mile.  a guy passed me about a quarter of a mile into the race.  i tucked behind him and drafted until the end of the first mile.  noticing he was struggling to hold the pace, i went by him and was by myself for the rest of the race.

My splits were as follows: 6:45, 6:45, 6:41, 6:49, 6:49, 6:53, 6:55, 7:01, 7:09, 6:52 pace  (for last 0.3).  Overall avg pace was 6:52, just over my goal pace of 6:50.  

First place was about 8 minutes ahead of me and second and third were about 3 minutes ahead.  i had about 30 seconds on the fifth place guy. 

I was very happy with my race strategy and pace especially considering this came at the end of my training week without a day off before the race like i normally do.  my training is right where i want it to be about a month before the philly half.