Thursday, February 5, 2009

Middle 3 - 18:38

Ran the Middle 3 today, 18:38 (6:13 pace). I felt good and no injuries, tightness or soreness. I only had 1 traffic stop at Speer on the way back.

It was a really warm day for February, near 70 with sun. As I was dressing at the Y I could not find a muscle shirt for running, thought I packed one for the week. I mumbled something about it and Lamar heard me and loaned me a muscled shirt. What a nice guy. I told him later it allowed me to take 30 seconds off my time.

We had 7 people show up to run (George,Dave,Craig C, Craig M, Pete C, Matt and myself). George and Dave peeled off early. Nobody else wanted to go hard except me, so I guess I won (a win's a win). Eric was supposed to show up today, but wasn't there, would be interesting to see where he is fitness wise. Anyway. Matt, Craig M and Pete were going to go up tempo at a 7 minute pace but not hard.

I started out at my usual fast pace for the first block and then settled into my 5k pace. I hit the half mile at 3:03, didn't get a traffic stop at speer and hit the mile mark at 6:15. I felt myself fade a bit for the middle portion, especially when I didn't get a traffic stop at Alameda. 9:30 at the turn around, so I knew sub 19 was achievable. I was encouraged by the pace and the lack of pain or tightness in my calf's. I was about 2 blocks ahead of the pack when we crossed after the turn around.
I was really hoping for a traffic stop at Alameda but it was clear, I did have to slow down just a bit. I accidentally hit my lap timer which through me off a bit at the 2 mile mark as far as my pace. I was 12:40 with a mile to go, sub 19 would be tight at this pace. I hit the downhill hard and really wanted a long traffic stop at Speer to catch me breath before the home stretch. I got my wish and got a nice breather at Speer. I turned around grabbing my knees and could not see the pack. As the light turned I took another peak and saw Craig and Matt at the top of the hill headed down. I ran across Speer and saw that Craig Carver was about a block ahead of me. He was behind us and had turned around at Speer. He took off fast, like he was daring me to catch him. That gave me a bit of a boost to catch him. Which I did about 2 blocks later just before the 2.5 mile mark. We passed some construction workers who asked what we were doing since we had just run by and I said we were racing. They later gave Matt and Craig a hard time about being behind. Ha. Anyway I hit the 2.5 mark at 15:29 (2:48 half mile split with a downhill, a break and a rabbit to chase, all that helps). Not wanting to get caught from behind after passing Craig, I kept a good pace going and finished the last half with the uphill in 3:09 which is pretty good for me, I didn't really kick the hill either. I didn't want to push the calf's.

Craig and Matt came in a minute or so later, they did sub 21 with a 6:40 last mile. Pete came in later, coasting a bit but a good tempo run for him.

We ran easy back to the Y, I felt pretty good. Matt picked up the pace a bit the last mile, but I was feeling so good I stayed with him.

I'm encouraged, I hope it holds out and I can build on this.

Saw Mark Brown at the Y and asked him how he found my blog since I hadn't told very many people about it. He said he went through the prostates to Jill and then saw a link to mine. The magic of the Internet. If you are still reading Mark, thanks and join us for a middle 3, saw you running the other day and you were looking fast. As you can see from my above description it is exciting, almost like NASCAR. :)

7 Miles total 50:38

1 comment:

  1. I'm feeling confident in your progression. Your injuries are past-tense now. I hope!

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