The path to my fixed purpose is laid with iron rails, whereon my soul is grooved to run.
Today was Week 3 Day 6 of the Hal Higdon 10K Training Plan.
Did 53 minutes on the elliptical as cross-training, burning somewhere around 1012 calories according to the machine. I’m pretty sure it overestimates the amount burned, but that’s probably in the ballpark. Felt good.
Tonight’s podcasts included Weekend America and NPR Kitchen Window.
Tomorrow is the long run.
Today is Week 3 Day 4 of the Hal Higdon 10K Training Plan.
Never in my life have I appreciated Friday’s as much as I do now. :)
Tomorrow is cross-training, and then another long run on Sunday.
Today was Week 3 Day 4 of the Hal Higdon 10K Training Plan.
Decided that rather than do my usual run on the roads around my development, I would switch it up a bit and attempt to run on an actual track. Headed over to the local high school track at around 7 PM tonight, tightened the laces and took off on my W3D4 2 mile run. Weather was around 83° with 52% humidity.
I struggled a little bit on the second lap and found myself slowing down in the turns, but I was able to generally keep a solid pace throughout. Ended up finishing 2.0 miles in 17:23 (8:41/mi pace) with 8:23 and 9:00 splits. That’s a new PR for me!
Also did my usual lifting routine later in the evening. Did reps of 10-8-6, trying to get myself in a strict routine. Felt good.
I’m tired, and looking forward to my W3D5 rest day tomorrow.
Today was Week 3 Day 3 of the Hal Higdon 10K Training Plan.
Did 40 minutes of cross-training on the elliptical, burning somewhere around 735 calories.
Tonight’s podcasts included APM: Weekend America, The Car Talk Call of the Week, and The 90-Second Naturalist.
Today was Week 3 Day 2 of the Hal Higdon 10K Training Plan.
Ran 2.5 miles tonight at a 10:14/mi pace. Average speed was 5.9 mph and my max was 7.9 mph. I also did a cool-down covering 0.26 miles at a 16:35/mi pace.
I’m not sure if it was yesterday’s weight training or something else, but tonight’s run wasn’t enjoyable at all. My legs were tired. I really wasn’t in the mood to run. And it just seemed to take forever.
Oh well. Cross-training tomorrow.
Today was Week 3 Day 1 of the Hal Higdon 10K Training Plan.
Did an easy one mile tonight as a warm-up, finishing in 9:58.
Then I did the usual strength/resistance training, and was able to up the reps in each exercise by almost 50%. I’m not sure if that means I’m getting stronger, or if I was just taking it too easy on myself for the first two weeks. Either way, it went well tonight.
Week 2 of the Hal Higdon 10K Training Plan is done!
Met up with Nate today to do our run in my development. The run itself was 3.5 miles, but including the warm-up and cool-down we covered 4.80 miles in 1:04:23 (13:24/mi pace). We kept it slow on the run, with the average pace between 11:22 and 11:59/mi.
That’s the longest I’ve ever run, both distance and time. But I felt pretty good by the time we were done.
I’m looking forward to Week 3!
Not only was yesterday the Gettysburg 5K, it was also Week 2 Day 6 of the Hal Higdon 10K Training Plan. I was supposed to do 40 minutes of cross-training, but ended up going to bed early instead. Doh!
Nate and I ran the YWCA Spirit of Gettysburg 5K yesterday… and it was awesome. The race course is a large loop around the Northwest corner of the National Military Park and past the Eternal Light Peace Memorial.
There were somewhere over 1400 total people registered to participate in the day’s activities, including the kid’s fun run and such. Of those about 800 were ran the 5K, easily making it the largest race I’ve ever been in. Luckily it was an extremely well organized event. I was able to pick up my race packet the night before, and they had pace signs to help people organize themselves in a reasonable manner at the starting line. Also, this was the first race I’ve entered that used RFID timing chips. Fun stuff.
I arrived at about 7:30 AM, parked the car and picked up my timing chip (#381). Just enough time to hit the bathroom, do some much needed stretching, and do a very short/slow warm-up job with Nate. Then we lined up somewhere behind the 8:00 pace sign. At 8:01 AM the starting musket (yes, musket!) went off, and we were running.
The first mile wasn’t too bad, and had a significant amount of trees and shade. The second mile had a decent hill heading up to the Peace Memorial, but then it was a long slow downhill that included a water station. Almost drowned myself trying to drink the water, and then started the climb to the third mile. Then it was the final push to the finish line… crowds cheering and music blaring.
I finished in 27:51 (9:12/mi pace), placing 476 out of 797 total finishers (466 male; 331 female). I was 30 out of 33 in my age group (30 - 34 year olds). That’s another PR, just one week after my last one!
My Garmin Forerunner times were a tiny bit off from the official chip times (~4 seconds), but according to that I covered 3.13 miles and my 1-mile splits were 9:00, 9:01, and 8:57. I also logged my highest speed ever, hitting 11.2 mph close to the finish line.
Nate also had a new PR, crushing his old one by more than 5 minutes!
Overall, it was a great race and a really fun experience. Perfect weather, nice course, I hit a new PR, and we all went out for breakfast at a diner afterward. I’m not sure what else I could ask for. :)
Update: Here’s the article on the race at the Evening Sun. The winning quote:
But [Bitok] admitted it would have been a big surprise not to have won after dominating the first mile.
“If you pull out at the first mile, the only thing that will make you lose is if you die in the middle,” the 27-year-old said.
Heh!