North Coast Challenge 5 Mile Race Report

Note to self: don't go this long without racing again! Nothing quite prepares you for race pace pain other than semi-frequent racing, so best not to avoid it for more than a few weeks at a time. I ran my first race in 6 weeks on Saturday and for the most part, I'm pretty happy with my performance. I knew I wasn't in PR shape after not really training that hard over the last few weeks (last two weeks my mileage was pretty low), but I feel ready to roll now and look forward to a good fall of racing and training. I ran 28:45 (5:45 pace) in hot and very humid conditions, which is a bit better than I was actually expecting. I'm quite a bit ahead of where I was last year at this time too -- in 2007 I ran 29:21 at North Coast in much better conditions. Another good sign was that I ran each mile in exactly 5:45, so my sense of pace is definitely there. I just need to get my mileage up and my times will get down to where they should be. The plan for the next 8 weeks is to try to hit about 60 miles a week and then back down a little in the 2 weeks before the Ann Arbor Turkey Trot 10K on November 9th. This Saturday I'll be racing in the Dances With Dirt 100K trail relay in Hell, Michigan, where I'll run three of my teams relay legs (probably about 15 miles give or take). Next road race will be the Cleveland Heroes Run on September 21. This is a super hilly 5 mile race and will be a good strength test.