Training update

With the exception of Sunday, very happy with this past week. 63.07 miles. Had to get the majority of my miles done M-Th so I could mini-taper on Friday & Saturday, so I could run my Sunday 5K hard. Probably cost me a bit on race day.

So, my 4th week in summary was:

Su - 0, unexpected/unplanned off day. Just simply got lazy, and couldn't motivate myself to go run.
M - 8.01
Tu - 16.02
W - 10.01
Th - 7.02 (morning), 7.0 (afternoon)
F - 9.01
Sa - 6.0

Week 5 is another 63-mile week, that started with a 5K race on Sunday, July 4th (held off my speedwork session from the previous week to this race day). The biggest issue is the weather forecast for the week. HOT, HOT, HOT!

My quality workouts for this week:
Q1 = 2 miles EASY + 2 x 10-12 min TEMPO (6:51/m) w/ 2 min rests + 1 hour EASY
Q2 = 2 miles EASY + Sets of 5 min HARD (6:14/m) with 3-5 min recovery jogs, total 5 miles

So like I said, yesterday I took my first crack at running a sub-19 5K. Here's my report:

Warmup - Way too short. My own fault for forgetting my shoes. Who in the hell forgets their running shoes before a race?!? Me, I guess. LOL. So had to race home and get them. I wish I'd had 20-25 minutes to warmup properly, instead of the 5 minutes I ended up having. I was not happy about this. But like I said, my fault.

Race - A good race, but not great. Finished 4th overall, 1st in my age group, with a time of 19:19. I should say it was not a big race. Only about 120 men, maybe 80 or so women. Warm & muggy 8:30 start (80*, 83% humidity). First mile, I was OK with a split of 5:44. I'd actually hoped to be closer to 5:30, so that was my first indication that I might have a tough time hitting my goal. At just after the halfway point of the race, I really started to feel it in my legs. From there on out, I knew I was going to be fighting the rest of the way. At that point, the runner who finished second had caught me, and I just focused on running with him as long as possible. I hit the 2-mile mark at 12:02. Again, not where I was looking to be at, at that point. With about 1/3-mile left, the 3rd place finisher caught me, and I knew there was retaking that spot either. But I knew no one else was close enough to me to push me to 5th. I don't remember what my split was at 3-miles, or I simply wasn't listening. I just tried to get to the finish. We were on the high school track, and as I rounded the turn into the straightaway, I saw the clock and knew 19:00 was not happening.

19:19 is a PR (by 1m 8s), but I am slightly disappointed that I didn't manage to get under 19 minutes. Still, after 63 miles of training, over the prior 6 days, I really can't complain. I'm absolutely certain I can go sub-19, I just need to put it all together (diet, rest, race conditions). The big thing will be doing a better job of resting a little more beforehand. But my marathon training is always the priority for me, so that will always make running a true, personal "best" difficult. But I'll take a few more cracks at it, maybe find a race on a "down week" in the plan when I can get that much needed, extra rest.

A takeaway from this race is that a 19:19 result puts me at a VDOT value of 52, under Daniels' running formula. This sounds about right as of right now. I was in better shape in March, and my eating habits were better, when I was on pace to run just under 19:00, which would have been the VDOT of 53 that I'd mentioned earlier, and was so concerned about. So I am going to move up to at least 51, maybe 52, starting this week, and see how I feel. In fact, when I look at my training thus far, I've been around 52 already.

Still a long, hot summer ahead, but I'm without a doubt having a better time training this summer than I did last summer.