LucKY2b -- glad your knee is better!
I've enjoyed reading the July 4th race reports, and realized I hadn't written in a while -- since long about my 5K race series in April / May. I've been trying to do the hills and drills you all recommended :-)
First weekend in June I ran the Steamboat Half Marathon, and ran a decent 1:35 (temps 40's at the start to 70's). Two weeks later I tried to run another one near Boulder. It was hot and smoky (temps 70's at the start to high 80's, and it got to 100 later that day) and I was a little tired and didn't pace right -- I stopped sweating at 9 miles and started getting chills at 10 miles. You can predict the rest ... after running a couple of 7:30's at the start, my 12th mile was over 10 minutes! Did some of that walk-in-the-shade-jog-in-the-sun stuff. Yikes. Ended up with a 1:43, which was better than I deserved. Felt sick for the rest of the day, which IS what I deserved. If I had started at 8:00's, would I have been able to maintain that pace, and not felt so awful toward the end???
So the next weekend I hopped into a 10K in Steamboat, mostly to get a tempo run in (because I am lazy and don't like speed work). Ran a 44:25, but the important thing is that I ran a downhill well! I have a history of passing people on the uphill, and then they all pass me on the downhill. It was an out and back course, with a pretty good uphill between 2.5 and the halfway point. So I passed a few people on the uphill, and then at the turnaround I ran as hard as I could to keep them all from passing me again! And I did okay (okay meaning the 3 girls I passed on the way up did not pass me again).
So that was Sunday. Monday I ran 3 miles EZ and Tuesday I ran 2 miles EZ, just in case I got the chance to race Wednesday. On Wednesday (July 4th), I was volunteering for a local race, and I got a little time off my volunteer duties to run it. I did 20:18 for a 5K, which I was happy about. I was running watchless, and was running by feel, which is a weird experience! I think part of the reason I ran well was because I knew almost all the volunteers and that gave me extra inspiration -- it was fun to see them along the course. And it was a fast course. Thursday I hiked about 4 miles with my husband and dog. Friday I ran about 8 1/2 miles of trails. Saturday I hiked a couple more miles.
Today my friend dragged me along for a 10-mile trail run. Pretty much 5 miles up, and 5 miles back down. She's stronger than me, so it was a good challenge. She's a good downhill runner too, so I got to work on my downhill running again. Good for the EPIC Relay coming up, from Canon City to Crested Butte.
So my mileage was low this week (30), but 2 races. Next race is the relay in 2 weeks.
Happy running to you all. Don't get over-heated!
K