Today's 5k

The past two weeks I've been training pretty consistent after a bad 5k on May 5th . The weather was warm and I started off too fast with a 4:45 first mile . I knew I was too fast after 1.5 miles into it . Mark Kushinka wasnt too far behind me . If he was there I wouldn't finished under 16 . My plan for today's race was to take it out conservative . It's hard to do that sometimes when adrenaline is pumping .
I arrived early today in Forsyth for the Connie Slaughter Memorial 5k . My goal was 15:30 . Wondering if I would get that mark on this fast course I recognized a runner from a race a couple of years ago . No doubt it was Sean Burris a pretty fast runner . Kinda glad he showed up to push me through a fast race . I wanted to stayed focused on my first mile and not run his race from the gun . I looked at my Garmin through the first 1/4 mile and we was running 5:20ish pace . I decided to pull from him alittle due to a slow start then he pulled beside me . We went through the first mile in 5:00 flat and we stayed together until the 2nd mile where he tried a little surge . I was feeling good so no need to worry about the surge . I've been running long enough to know surges are short lived from a mile out . I catch back up with him . He starts to pull away from 600 yards out and I'm trying to hang but couldn't . We finished with a lap on the high school track at Mary Persons . He came in at 15:16 ahead of my 15:21 . At my age now it's all about trying to stay fit instead of winning right now . A year and a half from being masters and I'm gonna need to stay this way till then hopefully .

Great week of training

Last weeks training nearly put me in the ditch . Started getting fatigued and wore out . Last weeks workouts was a 15 Miler @ 5:52 pace which the last 10 miles @ 5:45 . 8x2:30 hard 1:30 easy ( I cut rest down from my normal 2:00 ) then followed two days later with a 4x2 mile tempo @ 10:30 each ( pushed the pace which I shouldn't have ) . I was feeling dead the next day . Mayb I needed a week like that , mayb not . I was forcing myself to push beyond what I was capable of that week and leaving myself drained . I didn't reach my goal that Saturday in a 5k so and pushing my workouts . Always wanna feel like you can continue with a workout when you are finished with your goal workout that day but easy said than done for me . My tempo and fartlek left my bent over . With a 20 miler @ a slower pace (6:20) and 6x1k @ 4k pace left me feeling energized this week . Gate River Run 15k is this weekend . Goal is to win age division and see how I square up against the masters .

Two / Twenty / Twelve

I woke up Monday morning wondering if I should do a 800 track workout or just a Monafartlek workout since I have a 5k saturday . So i decided to go with mona . It was one of my better workouts . But I was worried about Julie during workout cause she was hurting . Luckily she had an appointment that day at 1:30 and she had her mom to drive her. Time was around the corner anyway . She was having contractions throughout the day . Soon as I was heading out driveway she called and said " Pack your bags , its time ". Heading to hospital wondering what we are gonna have . Boy/Girl ?? I said a prayer asking God that no matter what we have Im still gonna love it the same . Well Callie Rae Black was born at 11:36pm 2/20/12 . Prettiest little thing . Just like her sisters . Girls are having a fit over her . They are on couch with her now . They are going to be a big help . Not sure if anyone has seen the TV series Last Man Standing but sure thats how my life will be like .Funny show . Very blessed to have three beautiful girls and a nice

12x400

Yesterday I finishes up a good fast workout that left me sore today . I ran 400's averaging  64 seconds with 2:45 recovery .I was planning on 10 but felt ok so decided to add a couple .  Feeling a little sluggish today during my recovery run . think I'm going to take another recovery run tomorrow before I head to the track for 8X800 . Trying to stay smart with this training . Holding back on my interval workouts and not making them feel like a race . Every workout when you finish you want to make sure you feel like you can do another rep. Even though I said I was going to do 10 400's but did a couple more afterwards , I tried not to push to hard . Still felt fresh after 12 . Glutes are sore but wasnt bothered today with the easy run . You use different muscles when running all out than from normal running  form .

6x1200 on track

I traveled to Milledgeville to check out the recreation track on hwy 212 . I haven't done a track workout in years . I arrive and just a couple of people walking on the outside lane . Good . 1.5 mile warmup . I did 6x1200 slightly faster than 5k pace . I had to hold the pace back a little cause I'm basically training for a 15k and half marathon . Wanted to get some race specific training in . 3:38,3:40,3:39,3:39,3:38,3:34 . Last one was a bit fast cause couple of walkers showed up on last repeat and decided to take the inside lane . I was kinda pissed so my angry took control of my pace but glad it was the last one . God bless

Spartan 5k

I woke up to a cold windy morning Saturday . I had in mind to run a fast race . Shooting for a low 15:10ish . During the warm up I didn't see any fast contenders to push me through the race buy did recognize the headwind we was gonna have through the first mile . I checked the weather forecast on my phone and it said 10-15 mph at the time . Well I'll thought that low15 might be tuff to get . The start of the race is off and noticed this guy running on my heals . I thought it was probably a high school kid taking it out fast but about 400 meters he pulls up beside me . I look down at his shoes and notice he had just regular training shoes on . No flats . But he was pushing the pace . He looked over at me and said " you don't have to worry about me cause I didn't register , I'm just gonna pull off the course before the finish . I just wanna test my fitness " . I replied ok , cool . But I tried to show him that I wasn't gonna let him lead any but he was matching me step for step . I pressed on into the wind , he pressed on . I was hurting my first mile . We went through in 4:55 into a headwind of atleast 15mph which probably equaled out to a 4:35-4:40 mile . Soon as we get passed 1st mile turning away from the headwind I tried to open it up but soon as I did we made another left back into the headwind up a hill . Felt like I wasn't going anywhere . But after 300 meters of that we turned right and had the wind to my back I dropped him . 2nd mile was 10:22 . That first 1.4 miles hurt me . My last mile was 4:59 and finished with a time of 15:47 . The other guy was about :40 secs behind me before he turned off the course .
Everyone was saying their times was slow compared to last years . I ran 15:28 last year hoping to better that . Well now I'm trying to gear up for a fast competitive 5k in Warner Robins in two weeks . Looking to better my 15:32 time from their last year . And on that day is the baby's due date . It will be a great day one way or the other .
God Bless

8xmile tempo intervals

Today I was still feeling a little under the weather but able to run . I wanted to do a 3x2 mile tempo but wanted to do it on a flat surface . So I decided to stay in the house on the treadmill . Started out @5:29 pace but wasn't feeling it . Decided to break it down into mile intervals . After the 3rd one I was feeling great and worked the pace down to a 5:20 . I ended up doing 8xmile @5:20 with 1:30-1:40 recovery . Think I could have done it a little faster but didn't wanna overdo it . Next tempo workout will be an 8 Miler .