Training 3/12 - 3/18 and St Patrick's Day 5K

Mon- Rocky Fork Conservation Area, 4 mi, 38:23, 9:36/mi
Legs felt pretty sore from the 16 mile trail run on Sunday.

Tues- Dreier Dirty Dozen, 9.2 mi, 1:11:12, 7:44/mi
After Monday night’s run I wasn’t sure whether I would run the long course since it is a lot of hills. I got behind a couple guys that I often run with and it felt pretty easy so I ran the entire course.

Evening: upper body weights, 51 min

Wed- Rest

Thurs- MKT- Bridge, 7.9, 1:02:23, 7:54/mi
This was supposed to be an increasing tempo run, but I did take it a little easier than usual. First half was 33 min and second half, under 30 min.

Fri- Rest

Sat- St Patrick’s Day 5K, 19:01, 6:08/mi
Saturday I ran the 18th annual St Patrick’s Day 5K run. This year was my 10th year for this race. We planned to arrive early and run the course right before the race. When we left home, the temperature was about 36 F. During our warm-up it began to snow and there was some wind. We took about 30 minutes to run the course and arrived back to the start 12 minutes before the race began. The temp had dropped to about 31 at the time of the race. Last year it was 60 F.

I’ve been running more miles than ever before but haven’t been doing any real speed work so I didn’t know what to expect. Last year I ran my fastest time for this course in 18:54 and had done some speed work. I decided to go out and attempt the 1st mile in 5:54, the same as last year and see what happened. I lined up near the front, but there were 2 people in front of me. It is a narrow street so we are stacked back pretty far. When we took off, it was extremely congested and took awhile to get around people. Also, noticed my GPS didn’t have a signal so I didn’t know how fast I was going. I found another runner than I know and decided to pace with him. Shortly, my GPS found a signal and said we were at about 5:57 pace. The first half mile was a little slow at about about 3:15, but we hit the 1 mile at 6:01. The first mile seemed really easy and I felt like I could carry on a conversation, but didn’t.

I kept with him until about 1.5 miles and then noticed he picked up the pace so I let him go and tried to hold it around 6 min. There’s a bit of a small hill during the second mile, and I noticed my pace slow a bit up the hill, but 2nd mile split was decent at 6:09. Last year I slowed a bit more during the second mile, but picked it up in the last mile. I still felt really good so kept the same pace. I think at this point I should have picked up the pace but did not. It began to snow harder during the race and the ground was becoming more covered with snow, but the roads remained clear. This was definitely unexpected.

There was another hill in the 3rd mile. I caught up to a female and passed her near the 2.5 mi and she passed me back so I just hung with her. My third mile split was 6:09. The race ends on a hill and ran the last 0.1 in 42 seconds. I didn’t pick up the pace but just hung behind this female finishing in 19:01. I felt good and think if I had known where I was at, I might have had a chance to break my PR of 18:50. Considering, I didn’t have a clue where I might be and not doing any speed work, I think it was a decent run. 19:01 is my second fastest time for this race course. I’m thinking that I can probably break 19 minutes again this year. It’s more mental at this point and some speed work wouldn’t hurt either. Also, I would guess my splits were the most even I have ever run a 5K. I need to read Chris’s race strategies again to work on the mental.

After the race, I waited for Hugh to finish (22:37) and we ran the course again. Then we went to the awards ceremony and neither one of us placed in the top 3 for our age group. Last year I placed 1st and he placed 2nd but apparently there were 188 more finishers than last year for a total of 783. I ended up placing 4th of 32. None of the guys in my age group that beat me ran last year. I needed to run 18:20 to place third this year. Overall I placed 25 of 783. Hugh placed 6th of 40 in his age group and 92 of 783 overall.

Sun- Rockbridge State Park, 15.8 mi, 2:17:24, 8:42/mi
About 14 minutes faster than last week for the same course. I felt speedy today, but am cautious where I need to be since I don’t enjoy falling which I didn’t do today. The creek that I have to cross was low so didn’t get my shoes very wet this week.

Next Sat, I'm running a half marathon where I've PR'd every year so far. It is a pretty flat out and back course. Right now the temps are supposed to be in the 50s at the start. Last year my first mile was too fast and my pace slowed in the second half. I'm hoping this year I can start at a more reasonable pace so I don't fall apart before the second half of the race.

Running: 46.2 mi

Weight-lifting: 51 min

YTD Running: 619.1mi

March 24th-Sedalia Half Marathon
May 19th-Berryman Trail Marathon
September 3rd-Heart of America Marathon