Lung Strong 15k

In my last post I mentioned that I was going to reveal my goals for this race later in the week. Well, blog update paralysis took hold and I haven't got round to updating this thing until now. I can say that I did meet my undisclosed goals yesterday in the end. I ran a solid race to come 5th in 50:55 by my watch, 50:50 by my chip while covering a distance of 9.49 miles (as opposed to 9.33)- why are all the races I run so much longer than advertised!

This was a 29(or 34) second PB for this course and looking back I've been pretty fit when I've run this race before so this did confirm that I am getting in ever more decent shape as I approach Richmond. My coach was happy with the result mainly because it underlined his confidence in my current fitness. I'm not a very self confident person and this is no better exemplified than with my running. I often feel that I should be capable of running faster based on my workouts and consistency of mileage over the past twelve months but I tend to set myself pretty unambitious goals. So Saturday we came up with a plan that I would attack this race a bit, however the start developed. In other words I was going to dictate how the race went rather than being reactive. If I fell off my goal pace so be it, at least I would have given it a shot and at the end of the day the goal race is Richmond not the 15k.

As it happened I was able to maintain my goal pace throughout. Helped over the first 6.5 miles by the company of John Compton- an example of someone who typically I would not have gone out with as I would have been afraid the poace would have been too fast- I held it together once John decided enough was enough and went up the road.

So that's my last race before Richmond. Also last week Jay, Spada and I hit up PDS track to do 10*800 with 200m jog recovery. We nailed this workout bringing the times down from 2:37 to 2:30 by the end. My other 'stressor' for this week was the 18.5 I ran this am. My legs were complaining as I headed out into the dark and colder temps but helped by the company of Megan H, Chris B and Anne F I was able to finish this at about a 7:20 pace. Another week down, 83 miles this week. I get a rest day tomorrow before a 70 mile week including some turnover on Wednesday (16 400s) a long tempo on Friday (12 miles) and 20 on Sunday.

(Lisa and the girls were invited up to Blowing Rock on Saturday morning leaving me home alone this weekend. So I was able to hang around a lot longer after the race yesterday and then go to Brunch with a bunch of CRC members without having to rush back to the house. Once I got home I was feeling pretty zappped so was able to turn the football on and snooze all afternoon on the couch- bliss! Don't get to do that ever so I took full advantage!)