Week 21: Sep 12-17

Monday:
PM - A good team workout at McLeod park. We did some tempo intervals of 6 mins with 2 mins rest x 4. The first two were supposed to be around tempo pace and the last two were a bit faster. I ran with Blair most of the time, but about the third interval in halfway through my left hip-flexor tightened up and I held back just a little bit. It was still a very good workout. 20 min warm-up, 15 min cooldown. Probably about 7 or 8 miles.

Tuesday:
AM - easy 30 minutes about 4 miles
PM - easy 40 minutes about 5 miles

Wednesday:
PM - We did another tempo-type workout. We were all a bit tired and sore from Monday, but a good amount. We went to the island just over the bridge from Fort Langley and did about a 20 minute warm-up (about 4k). We had about a mile loop that we went around and after doing drills and warm-up did a tempo workout. We maintained pace for 20 minutes. So was about halfway around the fourth lap when 20 minutes came around. Blair and I ran together mostly though towards the end I was a little ahead of him since his legs just weren't responding. We went past the first mile at 5:55, second at about 5:48, and the last at about 5:40. Not too fast, but having tired legs and all wasn't too bad either. Then we did 5x30 sec hard with around 45-60 second jog back with a slight incline on the harder portion. Then a 3k cool down to get back to the car. About 8 or 9 miles today.

Thursday:
AM - 30 minutes easy around 3.5 miles
PM - 40 minutes easy around 5 miles

Friday:
We left for Seattle to stay the night for the race on Saturday. We did an easy 15 minutes with dynamic stretching and exercises just before going to bed.

Saturday:
Sundodger invitational.
The results for the Men's Open are still not posted because of some "flaw". It is unspecific as to the nature of that flaw and unclear when the results will actually be posted. I am somewhat aware of my time, but not any of my teammates' times. Pretty much everyone on the team had a good race day. The ladies did well, especially Alison and Fiona. For a full report you can read it here. I was the second man to finish for our team on this 8k course. Blair got off to a good start and we got separated by a wall of people so I couldn't pace off of him. He slowly pulled away. I was content to run my own race however. After the first mile (which I came by in 4:55) I realized I was going a little too fast. Even though the first mile was mostly downhill I didn't feel like that was a pace I could maintain. I felt great but knew I would regret it so I intentionally slowed down before it took its toll. I still felt some of the effects the next couple of miles but it wasn't so bad since I slowed down before my body forced me to slow down. The course is about a mile loop (slightly more than a mile the last 2 loops) that you go around 4 times. It was a big pack that only barely started to thin out around the third mile. I came by mile 2 at 10:08. Then mile 3 was at 15:32 or 33. My fourth mile was my slowest as I came by at 21:00. But since I ran smarter I was feeling good at the four mile mark and although the next mile was almost all uphill I started to pick off people. With about half a mile to go I ran past Mark's chosen location and he simply pointed ahead to the front of a long chain that one might call a pack and said, "Get up to the head of that pack". The head of the pack was probably about 50-100 meters ahead of me, but I felt good enough to go after it. There was another guy that made the same move as me. Coming around the last sharp turn into the 300 meter stretch to the finish I was only about 20 meters behind the front of that pack. Most people started kicking once they got around that tree, but I just maintained until I got about to the grass where I could see the finish line. Mind you even though I wasn't "kicking" I was still maintaining a pace faster than some of their kicks. The last 200 meters I did kick and managed to outkick everyone that was within reach. I got past the last of them about 10 meters to the finish line and achieved my goal of getting to the head of the pack. The guy that had tried to outkick me later puked, but luckily he waited until we got out of the chute. Ultimately I think that last mile I was somewhere close to 5 minutes, but I don't know exactly what it was. My best estimate is that my final time is 26:05. One of the guys I had outkicked I later heard him say his time was 26:08 and since it felt tougher to get past this particular individual than some of the others since he had a decent kick I figure I didn't get more than 3 seconds ahead of him, unless he ran out of juice while he was kicking, who knows. I doubt I got under 26:00 for sure, but its well within reach this season. Since I got so close to that goal in this first race I think I'll set my sights on sub 25:00 by the end of the season. I have absolutely no idea how far ahead of me Blair was. If I had to guess I would say he wasn't any more than 30 seconds ahead, but at least 10 seconds ahead. So I figure his time must have been somewhere between 25:30 and 25:50, not bad. That will be my other goal, catch him. I won't let him get away next time. But overall not a bad day! With warm-up, race, and cool down, I'd say I got in about 9 miles today.

Total weekly mileage: ~45 miles

I probably should be getting in a little more mileage, something to work on.

Running Toward God,
Jason