I'm Back (This Time It's Lane, and It's for Real)

I have neglected this blog for a while and that's been bad.

I have decided to can the math posts for now.  They take too long to write well to fit into my schedule on a consistent basis.  They may reappear in the future or not, we'll have to see.  Regular running updates will resume, starting immediately:

The past couple weeks have been interesting.  I put in weeks of 65.5, 29.9, 70.0, 50.2, and 26.0.  Why the inconsistency?  The 29.9 mile week was done in three days (I took 4 off due to no power and dangerous conditions: I wasn't getting any kind of quality sleep and was just trying to survive) and the 50.2 was the first week of a taper for my two goal races of the "season", the Hot Coco 5k and Jarred's Run (a 5k/10k).  I took second in the Hot Coco 5k and earned my first cash prize of $50.  I suppose I won't quit my day job.

I had anticipated a quicker race than actual materialized.  I had planned to stay comfortable the first mile and start picking people off in the second and third miles.  Instead, a pack of 4 ended up running at a pace that was fairly comfortable for me nearly the entire way and the race didn't break open until about half a mile from the finish.  I was caught a bit flat-footed but still managed to take second with a near-PR in 16:26.

Leading up to Thanksgiving morning, I had won the 5k at Jarred's Run twice, won the 10k once, and taken second in the 5k once.  I had decided on the 10k to try to break my relatively soft PR (35:11).  I assumed the race would be a lonely time-trial.  I started out quick, with one of my high school teammates who was running the 5k flying out of the gates.  I wanted to keep up with him and when he started to fall behind, I pressed on, passing the half-mile in 2:27 and mile in 5:07.  I knew these were too fast so eased off a little.  I got to the 2.5k mark in 8:26 and the 5k in 17:18, around 30 seconds ahead of my first 5k the previous year.  I had slowed down quite a bit and when I turned around I was surprised to see someone relatively close behind.  My mind somehow made me think the lead was only 20 seconds (unlikely...) so I really started to push myself.  I ended up putting the next 2.5k in 8:18 and the second 5k in 16:50 for a total time of 34:08.  I was really moving and pushing myself through the second half.  Second place came in around 37:50, so I don't think the estimated lead of 20 seconds was very accurate.  I decided to take the rest of the week off as if I had just finished a running "season".

I will write about the lessons learned from this summer and fall of training and racing soon.

Until then...

 Alex: cue blogging montage