Reindeer Run 5K

Had a really solid 5K race this morning in my last tune up before Club Nationals in Seattle, running 17:38 (5:41 pace). I was especially happy given the conditions -- 35F and windy. I was definitely feeling it in my lungs near the end! One weird thing about the race was my chip time was EXACTLY the same as my gun time even though I wasn't at the very front. A friend I started next too had a 1.5 second differential. Not sure if it was a chip malfunction or something but no worries (just curious about the technical aspects).

I've been doing the 4 days a week with 1 stress workout (or race) program for 6 or 7 weeks now and even on half the mileage I was doing at my peak masters training a few years ago (back then I was doing 2-3 stress workouts a week too), I am running close to my best if you factor in age grading. Right now I feel like I'm getting better and better, so I have high hopes for 2012. One thing I am noticing from the longer easy days is my improved strength. Combining twice a week long runs with a stress workout and one easy day seems to be the ticket. That said, I was a bit tired this week from running two 11-milers but I wanted to train through this week and then back down for Seattle. Next week I won't run anything longer than one hour. Excited for the trip. I'll be staying with my pal Coulter, who runs for Club Northwest. We knew each other from going to concerts (like Gene and Suede) back when we were in the Boston area. Weirdly, we didn't know that either of us was 'once' a runner and would later become reborn as masters runners!