Sure this is over a month late but I did another race. That is 2 for 2013. what is going on??? anyways, I once again waited until the last minute to sign up as I signed up 6 days before the event (last day of online registration). The mileage has been there in training, just absolutely no speed work whatsoever. My body responds pretty well to mileage as long as its easy with some moderate stuff and the occasional speed session. I got injured while trying to maintain high mileage and over doing the speed work. Most of my injuries have come from speed work sessions where I have over done it. I was either turning the workout into a race, or doing it tired and hoping to hit times that would have been a stretch for me even if I had rested.
Anyways, I've been running consistently and keeping the mileage high for me. Long run every weekend (11-14 miles) and doing some moderate runs throughout the week. I used race week to back off a little and rest. Saturday rolled around and it was pouring rain and thundering. Luckily, the thunderstorms went away, but the rain continued to come down. It didn't stop until Saturday night. I was soaked well before the start of the race but no worries. If you mentally accept it, its no big deal. It's when you try to stay dry and tell yourself that you won't get that wet when you get upset about the rain.
I did a short/easy warmup and saw a Vandy girl doing the walk of shame so that always makes me laugh at 6:35 on a Saturday morning. At, 7:05 we were off. I felt controlled but I knew I was running faster than I have been recently. There was a bachelorette party running in front of me for the first 1/2 mile. I kind of laughed but wasn't happy to be behind them. Well, they stayed in front of me for the next 3-4 miles and I didn't catch the last member of that party until 6.5 miles in the race. I guess they were legit. I went through the first mile in 6:02 which was a lot faster than expected. The next mile was downhill so it was another 6:03 mile. Miles 3-5 were uphill so I held around 6:15-6:20 pace for these. I was passing the ladies who took it out fast, and the guys that were running a little faster than they should have been. My 6th mile was a 5:58 so I went through 6 miles in just about 37 minutes. My 10k was just over 38:10 ish. The next few miles were up and down and I passed the leading woman around mile 8. It's been a long time since I've had to race the leading female. I remember when I first started running road races that I always was right around where the leading female would be so that turned into a goal of mine until I started getting a little better. It turned out that is about the goal I set in the middle of the race. I decided that I had better beat the first woman and I would run as hard as I needed to accomplish this. Fortunately, there were no "very elite" women at this race or I would have been in trouble as I know there are plenty of women that can run in the ball park of 1:14 - 1:19 which is faster than I was going to run for sure.
Anyways, nothing really changed over the last 5 miles or so. The leading woman kept me in her sights and I even heard some spectators cheer for her at mile 11 so even though I passed her at mile 8. My 12th mile was my fastest mile being in about 5:50 (think it was a hair short as my last mile was 6:15 - 6:20 and it wasn't really that uphill), and managed to hold pace to the finish line. I went through 13 miles right around 1:19:10 ish so I really had to focus that last 1/10 of a mile to make sure I dipped under 1:20 (which I did). The results ended up having me about 50 seconds faster than I had on my watch but who's counting, right???
Casey met me at the finish line, we jogged back to the car, still getting completely soaked from the downpour, then we went to Panera. That was our splurge for the day for me getting about 17 miles in for the day and Casey being the best spectator on the course (I may have a little bias).
I was very pleased with the result considering I have been running 8:00 min. pace for my long runs so I did not expect to run 6:05 pace for this race at all. Over the next few months I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and try to stay consistent with my training.
Tony
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