*************************
Week 208
*************************
Salutations, 50+ers! The first entry on this thread was May 29th, 2011, so we start on the fifth year of this experiment! (It also tells me that I must have still been off by a week somewhere, despite Alan B's constant fixing of my miscounts!) Thanks to all that keep this adventure going and thanks to those who lurk and read our stories (maybe you'd like to join in?). This is real running, real training, real aging, warts and all.
My week was another unremarkable one. It got off to a great start up in Wisconsin, and I don’t know whether it was the weather-prolonged drive home or what, but I’ve felt pretty sluggish the rest of the week, culminating with a sub-par race yesterday. With only 26+ miles in the books this week, here’s what I’ve got to show for it:
Sun: 6.4 miles easy (8:10ish pace)
Mon: 6.2 moderately easy (7.36 avg. pace)
Tue: off (drove all day through stormy weather)
Wed: 4.2 w/1.3@~6:15 pace (avg pace 7:08)
Thu: 4.2 very easy w/6-loops on a half-mile forest trail near our house
Fri: off (weather and stuff)
Sat: 5.6 w/5k race (let’s just say I stayed under 20-minutes on this slightly short course)
Started off the week with a couple of nice runs through the UW Arboretum in Madison (if you've ever run it, you know what a treat that is), first with my old coach, then with my brother-in-law. After that, as you can see, the week kind of fell apart. Wednesday was a coolish day, so I got a bit of hard effort in there, trying to shake off the effects of the road trip. After that, though, as the heat and humidity (and storms) picked up, I just lost steam. The warm, humid start and lack of sleep the night prior, left me feeling less than ready to go for Saturday morning's race. On top of that, I weighed myself after the race, and I’m back up to 170lbs…I guess, in Wisconsin, I partook a little too much while in Wisconsin, haha! But seriously, 12+ lbs of weight is going to have to come off, if I hope to run decently at the Bluegrass 10K a month from now. I don't really want to talk about the race, other than I didn't completely fall apart or anything, but it was a lethargic effort. On the plus side, the last mile was all uphill, and according to Strava's GAP (Grade-adjusted pace), my adjusted last mile was my best mile (the actual pace was 6:49). I was just glad to keep the overall time under 20 minutes (19:50, although my Garmin said the course was 3.05 miles.)
Props, Dave, on some nice running; the 50-54 AG has been very good to you! Based on that road 10K at Traverse City (awesome, by the way!), the tables would suggest that your track 5000m time would be about 16:30 at this point…so getting there!
The Masters Half-Marathon Championships are going on this morning. Should be an interesting dual between Meb Keflezghi and Kevin Castille.
http://runrocknroll.competitor.com/san-diego/
That's all I've got for this week. Hope you all are doing well, and I look forward to continuing to share in your fitness journey! Any more races to report?
All the Best!