Training Update

Ran 59 miles this past week, consisting of mostly easy distance running with two key workouts: hill reps on Wednesday and a 96 minute trail run on Saturday. Felt pretty good all week as the weather changed from mid-30s early on to mid-80s by the weekend. The big race focus for me is the Brian Diemer 5K in Grand Rapids, Michigan on June 13 and I went ahead and just hired Pete Magill to coach me. I have been following Pete's off-the-clock 5K program that he outlined on his website for about 5-6 weeks now, but I decided to go the extra mile and get some individualized coaching as I really like the basic stuff that he outlined on his website. I have my workouts scheduled for the next month and I'm feeling ready to roll. No races in this period, other than a low key 5K on woodchip trails in Oberlin this coming Sunday that I'll be training through. My focus now is to work on increasing my weekly mileage and to get in some good quality workouts.

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Overall win!

Well, this was a little weird. This morning I won my first overall race (The Old Oak Run in Middleburg Heights) since high school and not by just a little, but by 50 seconds! I didn't sign up for the race looking for a cheap win or anything as I was 4th overall last year and 3rd master. I was fully expecting some good competition in my first 5K race of the Spring. On the starting line I didn't see any faces I knew, but a quick look down at some of the runners' racing flats led me to believe that there might be some fast running, at least in the low 16 range. Anyway, even with my usual somewhat conservative start I found myself in the lead after only a few minutes with no one willing to go with me. It was just yours truly, a cop on a motorcycle and the pace car. I kept it pretty controlled because to be honest, I was really nervous being in the lead! I kept wondering if someone might be moving up on me but it was just really lonely like my weekend interval sessions in the metro park so after about half way when I knew it was in the bag, I pushed harder and I kind of drifted back into time when I was winning high school cross country meets. My time was 17:25, not a PR or anything, but a pretty solid time for what was pretty much a time trial that I paid $20 to run. Last year I didn't break 17:30 until my 4th race of the Spring (in early May) and I went on to run 16:57 at the Diemer 5K (certified course) in mid-June so I feel like I'm ahead of where I was, which I'll take at age 44. Next up for me is a 5K in Oberlin on May 3, which should have a few fast guys in the field, so hopefully I can get myself around 17:00, which should prep me for hopefully taking down my PR at the Diemer race.

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10K PR

Ran an 18 second masters 10K PR with a 36:06 (5:49 per mile pace) at the Meteor 10K in Dearborn, Michigan on Saturday. Really happy with the result as it was 34F and very windy at race time. Can't seem to catch a break weatherwise this Spring! It seemed like the wind was getting us from all sides during the race, but I'll definitely take the performance. Ran a smart even paced race, holding back in the first mile (5:57) before running everything else in the 5:45-5:50 range. I was 6th master and 26th overall in a very competitve race. As I ran very even, I was constantly picking off people throughout the race who went out too hard. I thought I was 5th master because I outkicked a masters guy from Michigan in the final stretch, but his chip time ended up being 0.1 seconds better than mine so he placed higher than me. I've never had that happen to me in a race before, but whatever.

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