To close out the fall racing season, I decided to just go race everything in site and see what results followed. I had done little preparation at all for this as I have just tried to get my miles in and the workouts have been scattered. In a 10 day period, I raced 5 times. 3 of these races were 5k's and despite running over everything from a flat to a very rolling course in cold, windy conditions to warm and still, I ran within like 3 seconds each time. The other race was a warm and windy Route 66 1/2 where I sustained 5:30 pace feeling pretty comfortable in effort but with legs that felt leaden. I proceeded to hop in to the marathon after my race and pace store associate Pyle through his sub3 hour quest which unfortunately was a bust and then I paced a long string of folks into a nasty headwind before booking it roudabout to the finish for an impromptu marathon. Three days later, I ran our OKC turkey trot on a frigid blustery day trying to run away from a college kid, only to get left in the last quarter mile. I probably didn't gain a whole lot from these efforts as they're not particularly of merit to me but it is a good lesson in teaching the psyche to run hard even when in full lethargy and dead-leggedness. I will intend to give some more races a try starting around February, with the intention of a good 1/2 marathon performance, but as of late have hit a speed bump with a bit of a stomach bug that has ended a good string of high mileage days. I have been enjoying my last couple days lessened on the roads with some films: How to train your dragon, The Lebowski (Jenny's 1st time), Onimasa, The Extra man and looking to refresh the mind and body.
I hit the track this morning for some work. It was another nice morning but I can't imagine the humidity abating for long. Jordan and Meagan had matching workouts of 4-8-12-16-16-12-8-4 w/ 60 second rest. The paces prescribed were quick and I didn't run great but I tried to hang with Jordan on the middle reps. I should hopefully be able to substantially improve on my efforts this morning and maybe feel better doing it. I did something like a 200-500-1100-800-1600-1200-600-200, I wasn't happy with missing out on the first 1600 but I had to break for the restroom and I at least touched on some faster paces on the other reps. The recovery made it a pretty honest effort and I at least was able to sneak below 5:00 pace. My goal for the summer is breaking 15:00 so we'll see what happens. The picture above is my uncle's digital rendering of a wave complete with a frigate bird. I think he used only Adobe throughout the process.
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