City of Oaks, Week 6 Training

Definitely a good week. I started with typical track work on Tuesday. I had 1K, 2K, 1K, 1K on the plan. I ended up running 1K, 2K, 2K, since the first 2K felt good. My numbers were 5:26, 11:14, 10:40. Pace numbers were 8:31, 9:09, and 8:40. Overall, I ran 5.74 miles in 1:03:49, which is an 11:07 pace.

Thursday's run was good as well. I had 8 miles on the plan. It was a rainy morning, but not that hard, so it was nice. The wind was a bit strong, but only affected me when I hit the open farm land section of Trenton Road, south of the SAS entrance and just north of the Trinity turn. I ended with 7.98 miles in 1:24:10, which is a 10:33 pace. The only thing bothering me was a bad stomach ache late in the run.

I added an extra run on Saturday, since I originally had 13 miles for my long run, but I was only doing 10 miles on Sunday for the Anna's Angels 10 Miler. I did an out and back on Black Creek starting at West Dynasty and turned at the gazebo just at the beginning of Lake Crabtree. The run was 3.85 miles in 35:19, which is a 9:10 pace.

Sunday's long run was a race, which I thought would be good for me, since I haven't run one in a while. This is a good one, because it is fairly flat, except for a late hill at about 8.3 miles, which can be very challenging. It was cool, but very humid, and there was a thick fog at the beginning of the race. I started off at a 9:30 pace on the first mile, but it didn't feel too fast. Again, it's pretty flat, and the beginning is a decline/downhill. I was in the 9:30's for a few miles, and I was feeling strong, so I just kept running, since it felt comfortable. I ended the race in 1:37:47, which was a 9:44 pace, so I stayed pretty even for most of the race. I did take a couple of walk breaks on the big hill, but I kept them short, and ran most of the hill. The last .8 miles can be a little bit of a challenge on this race if you don't save some energy, because it's rolling. The hills are short, though, so it's doable. I was very happy with my results, which was about 8 minutes faster than last year, although, I'm going by my watch time, not my official time, since the results are not posted yet.

5 weeks to go...