OBJECTIVE
5K : challenge January's 20:37 PR
ACHIEVED
5K : 20:12 (unofficial)
8:00 AM 52° 97% 0 mph
I wasn't planning on racing today but my 15-year old son mentioned last night that he wanted to run The Woodlands 5K this morning. He's been running the two-mile event this track season (when it doesn't conflict with baseball) so I fully expected him to beat me today. But I wasn't going to go down without a fight! I didn't sleep well last night and didn't feel too good this morning before the race.
Amazingly, I felt great for the first half of the race. I forgot to bring my Garmin so I didn't know my pace. I was just running with my Timex Ironman. I think Cameron must have misjudged the distance because I passed him between 1 and 1.5 miles into the race. It felt like I was pushing the pace just about right. An amazingly efficient female runner passed me around 2 miles. Her stride was short but her turnover was very fast. She rolled past me. I tried to hang with her for a while but she methodically stretched the gap as I started breaking down. I think she was the same person who passed around the same point when I ran this race back in January.
I checked my watch and figured that I was going to have a chance of breaking 20:00 if I pushed it. So I did. But, in the end it wasn't enough. I didn't hear my time called out at the finish but had 20:12 on my watch. They usually post the results so I'll watch for the official time later.
My finish was good enough for 6th place overall. Cameron was about 20 - 25 seconds behind me in 9th place.
I was supposed to run 7 miles today so I'll either get 4 more miles later today or first thing in the morning.
PRE RUN
water & GrapeNuts w/skim milk
POST RUN
water & SlimFast
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Run Home from the Office
OBJECTIVE
8 mi. @ 8:25/mi.
ACHIEVED
9.77 mi. @ 8:28/mi.
6:45 PM 66° 31% 14 mph
Okay, I've been wanting to try this run for a long time. Ironically, I live a little over 26 miles from the office where I work. There happens to be a Park and Ride for bus commuters a little over half way from my house. For a little less than a year now, I've thought I'd like to park my car at the bus stop, ride the bus to work in the morning then run back to the bus stop after work. I've plotted several different routes to accomplish this. Now that daylight savings time is here and my fitness allows for it, I figured I'd give it a try today.
I was a bit eager at the outset as I wound my way out of downtown. I decided to just let my watch run continuously rather than mess around with stopping and starting it at every traffic light along the way (there ended up being many!). It was a very nice evening and I felt pretty good. A few people that I had talked to about attempting this run in the past didn't think it was a good idea since I'd be running alone and if anything happened there wouldn't be an easy or obvious contingency plan. This is a big part of the reason I hadn't tried this run before now.
The first 5 miles went well. The route was new so I was wide-eyed. The evening was beautiful as the sun was setting. The last 3 miles were tough. It was one long stretch along a "feeder road" (something I didn't know about until moving to Houston 8 1/2 years ago). The shoulder was 4" to nonexistent in some places. The traffic - while only one-way - was moving close to freeway speed. While I didn't ever feel in imminent danger, there were times that the sidewalk did seem the safest of places - especially as a began to get darker.
The smells from ethnic restaurants along the way were great! I also saw and heard a woman playing her guitar and singing on her porch. It was fun.
The shortcomings of the run were the traffic and running on sidewalks. I think I'll try this again but will probably look for alternate routing to keep me on some quieter streets along some sections of the run.
Although the last three miles were particularly tough, I felt great after stretching and driving the rest of the way home. Chalk one up for reducing my carbon footprint today (he said, tongue-somewhat-in-cheek).
PRE RUN
granola bar & water
During the run, I ate 1/2 Clif bar and drank about 16 oz. H2O
POST RUN
SlimFast
8 mi. @ 8:25/mi.
ACHIEVED
9.77 mi. @ 8:28/mi.
6:45 PM 66° 31% 14 mph
Okay, I've been wanting to try this run for a long time. Ironically, I live a little over 26 miles from the office where I work. There happens to be a Park and Ride for bus commuters a little over half way from my house. For a little less than a year now, I've thought I'd like to park my car at the bus stop, ride the bus to work in the morning then run back to the bus stop after work. I've plotted several different routes to accomplish this. Now that daylight savings time is here and my fitness allows for it, I figured I'd give it a try today.
I was a bit eager at the outset as I wound my way out of downtown. I decided to just let my watch run continuously rather than mess around with stopping and starting it at every traffic light along the way (there ended up being many!). It was a very nice evening and I felt pretty good. A few people that I had talked to about attempting this run in the past didn't think it was a good idea since I'd be running alone and if anything happened there wouldn't be an easy or obvious contingency plan. This is a big part of the reason I hadn't tried this run before now.
The first 5 miles went well. The route was new so I was wide-eyed. The evening was beautiful as the sun was setting. The last 3 miles were tough. It was one long stretch along a "feeder road" (something I didn't know about until moving to Houston 8 1/2 years ago). The shoulder was 4" to nonexistent in some places. The traffic - while only one-way - was moving close to freeway speed. While I didn't ever feel in imminent danger, there were times that the sidewalk did seem the safest of places - especially as a began to get darker.
The smells from ethnic restaurants along the way were great! I also saw and heard a woman playing her guitar and singing on her porch. It was fun.
The shortcomings of the run were the traffic and running on sidewalks. I think I'll try this again but will probably look for alternate routing to keep me on some quieter streets along some sections of the run.
Although the last three miles were particularly tough, I felt great after stretching and driving the rest of the way home. Chalk one up for reducing my carbon footprint today (he said, tongue-somewhat-in-cheek).
PRE RUN
granola bar & water
During the run, I ate 1/2 Clif bar and drank about 16 oz. H2O
POST RUN
SlimFast
Monday, March 17, 2008
On Tired Legs
OBJECTIVE
8 mi. @ 8:25/mi.
ACHIEVED
8.00 mi. @ 8:17/mi. (1:06:26)
7:06 AM 70° 81% 15 mph
PRE RUN
Clif bar & water
POST RUN
SlimFast
Later, oatmeal 2/skm mlk & brn. sugar; multivitamin; water
8 mi. @ 8:25/mi.
ACHIEVED
8.00 mi. @ 8:17/mi. (1:06:26)
7:06 AM 70° 81% 15 mph
PRE RUN
Clif bar & water
POST RUN
SlimFast
Later, oatmeal 2/skm mlk & brn. sugar; multivitamin; water
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Easy Miles
OBJECTIVE
6 mi. : easy pace
ACHIEVED
5.53 mi. @ 9:09/mi. (50:40)
6:05 AM 55° 72% 6 mph
Just looking to stretch it out and get a few easy miles this morning. I was experiencing some soreness from yesterday's effort. I also must have been sleepwalking (sleeprunning?) because I turned too early on my six-mile route and inadvertently cut it 1/2 too short.
PRE RUN
Clif bar & water
POST RUN
SlimFast
6 mi. : easy pace
ACHIEVED
5.53 mi. @ 9:09/mi. (50:40)
6:05 AM 55° 72% 6 mph
Just looking to stretch it out and get a few easy miles this morning. I was experiencing some soreness from yesterday's effort. I also must have been sleepwalking (sleeprunning?) because I turned too early on my six-mile route and inadvertently cut it 1/2 too short.
PRE RUN
Clif bar & water
POST RUN
SlimFast
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