Personal Bests
It’s been a while, eh? π
Brief recap:
GAC Alumni 5k: 17:27.22, a 9 second lifetime PR. Missed the stadium record by 9 seconds. Bummer.
New Prague 1/2 marathon: 1:19.53. Done as a marathon pace workout (goal was 1:20-1:21). Happened to be a 2+ minute lifetime PR as well (only because my previous PR was from the last half of the Trials marathon. :))
New Prague was done at the end of a 103 mile week. Things have ramped up significantly since the GAC 5k π
GAC 5k recap:
So – Linda now has the meet record (I previously held it), and I didn’t set the stadium record. Bummer. But, I’m very happy with the race — a 9 second PR! Yipee!!!
Although the time is slower than I was hoping, I am really happy to have focused on the shorter distances this early spring. I needed it (rewind back to my first 200m workout, where the 200s I did were practically at marathon pace — I had NO ability to change pace at all!). It also reminded me that I’m not a talented 5k runner :).
New Prague 1/2 marathon:
I try to line up these long Daniels-prescribed 13 mile MP workouts with a race just to help me through them. New Prague is perfectly timed – 5 weeks before Grandma’s.
Goal was to try to “feel” marathon pace for this “workout”. It’s a challenging course, no doubt – completely rolling hills.
Early on, I hit 6:05s and felt that this was my natural rhythm. Despite the fact that this was a 103 mile week, my legs have felt really good (massage helping, perhaps?) and today 6:05s felt surprisingly effortless. My lungs also felt huge, which is also surprising since I’ve been fighting a good cold (think green stuff since Monday night) for most of the week.
I was super excited to come through in 1:19:53. That’s a lifetime PR for me (I haven’t raced many outright 1/2 marathons… and when I have, it hasn’t been pretty), and an awesome MP effort. Makes me think that sub 2:40 is within my reach!! And as Jerry reminded me, perhaps something close to 6:00/mile might be do-able (yikes…). I looked that up and that would be a 2:37 low… sometimes his optimism impresses me.
Edit: As Steve pointed out, I should mention that I took home the win by over 7 minutes :). I also, surprisingly, set a new lifetime PR in the 10 mile (what?? I wasn’t even racing all-out!) at 1:01:10. I didn’t know that until Nate pointed it out. That’s sort of crazy, when you think about it… guess that means I need to work on my shorter distance PRs :). Or that I’ve just improved a lot in the past two years (which is also very much the case).
So… now on to continued mileage. Yikes. This week is 103, next close to 90 (due to a day off). The next week we’ll be on vacation, and Jerry’s plan calls for anything between 80-100 (our vacations are basically run/hike as much as possible, see as much of national parks as possible, etc :). That’s the most I’ve ever done in a 3 week period. Just need to keep myself healthy, happy, and feeling great!!!