Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Catching Up

I've been getting behind on the writing lately. Luckily, I haven't slacked off in the running department. Since last time I wrote, I now officially signed up for the Philadelphia Marathon. I haven't missed a training run since before the NJMP 10K.

This past weekend, I ran the Blue Eagle 5K, right behind my parents house. I have run over parts of the course many times. Although I didn't quite follow the course correctly, I did run it twice last week before the race. Last Tuesday, I ran hard and went just under 23 minutes. On Thursday, I tried to take it easier, but actually ended up running only a minute slower.

The race itself was somewhat disappointing. I really felt that I could get into 21 minutes and possibly 20 minutes if I ran very well. Instead, I wound up with a 22.42. That was good enough to get an award, but only because there were few others in my age group. I actually finished 4 minutes behind the guy in front of me in my age group.

I went out strong and felt great. One nice thing is that it was a very competitive field (unlike my first two races). Since it supported the HS teams, there were a lot of young runners participating. The first mile felt great, but I knew I was in trouble when she read off my time as 6:36. I forgot to start my watch at the beginning, so my time was off.

That first mile felt comfortable, but I knew it was just too fast. I was really hoping to go out around 7 minutes, not that far under. The second mile was rough and I got side stitches. I thought getting a drink at the water station would help, but it actually got worse for awhile. It wasn't that hot, but still hot enough.

I was at least able to break this one guy who was working really hard to try to stay with me. He was nowhere in sight by the finish. I also had a great kick at the end and blew by one lady. I clearly went out too fast though and really paid for it at the end.

Hopefully one of these days, I'll have a good race. All three thus far have been terrible on my road back. I'm really prepping for long distances though so these fast 5Ks aren't concerning me too much, especially without doing speed sessions.

That evening, I decided to run two more quick miles to get to the scheduled 5 for the day. Since I wasn't worn out from the race, I figured this was a reasonable option. I ran the actually course again on Tuesday, but this time took it nice and easy.

Today, I got back to Philly. I ran along the river for the first time since arriving at my new place. I went out right to the stands and back for a 4 mile route. It started off cloudy, but started to get sunny and humid as I finished up.

I started around 8 AM and there were a lot of people out at that time, particularly women. I passed three of them who were slow. It was good though because it naturally forced me to push harder. I turned around right before getting to a male runner. I continued to work hard to keep him in front of me and I did so. I finished strong.

I am still concerned that I'm wearing down too much. I'm not finishing runs anywhere near as strong as I start them. This is the case even for these shorter 3 and 4 mile runs. I figured that as I added mileage, these would get easier. They are, but not as much as I would've thought. I still don't have quite the finishing stamina that I would like.

I bought a new pair of shoes. They are the same ones that I have now. I'm breaking them in with some walking and next week, I'll probably add them to my shorter runs. After that, I'll start using them full time. My shoes seem pretty worn already. It is probably because I wear them everywhere, not just to run.

Tomorrow is another short 3 mile run. I haven't decided the route yet. Saturday is a 9 mile run which I am very eager for. It will be my first time running the Schuykill loop in years. That is actually 8.4 miles so I have to add on a little bit. I'll get up nice and early for that run too.

I might not be making quite as much progress as I hoped, but I'm still improving daily. It just isn't coming to me as easily as it did back when I first started running. Although, I've hit a little rut lately, I still feel very good and positive. I'm definitely still focused.

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