Weekend Update

Another weekend has somehow flown by, and here I am on Monday once again! Luckily, short work week with 4th of July, so should go by fast. Congratulations to Kara Goucher for winning the U.S. Track and Field 5000 meter final! Great shorter race, before she gets into intense marathon training for the World Championships in Berlin. My buddy Stephen Pifer finished 4th in the 1500 finals - slow start, and he took the lead with about 600 meters left but couldn't hold on. Lopez Lomong (08 U.S. Olympian) and Leo Manzano surged ahead at the end and finished 1-2. Awesome race, wish I could have seen it but crappy St. Louis programming didn't allow for it!

Weekend was pretty good - the highlight being my friend's golf tournament on Saturday. Friday night, passed out hardcore after work, but stumbled over to Pat and Crystal's for a night of ping pong. Wanted to get a run in, but completely failed in that endeavor due to heat and just fatigue from the long work week. Saturday morning, attemped to wake up early before golf but didn't make it. Spent most of the hot day beating balls around and after sticking around for the awards (our team finished 1 stroke behind the B Flight winner) and clean up, we stumbled over to my friend Nick's house for some post-tourney celebration (pics coming soon). Needless to say, it was a loooong night and was feeling the effects on Sunday. Another 0 mile day, not too pleased about that.

Woke up to more heat, so postponed my long run until later. Stopped by Barrel's new apartment to hang out (awesome new place!), then headed over to South City for my running team meeting/bbq. Had a fun time telling war stories of previous races with fellow teammates, ate some good food, and ordered a pair of Brooks Adrenaline (like I need more shoes) since we were getting a 40% discount due to mass order! Got home later, realized it was very cool and just gorgeous outside (heat wave temporarily gone!) so strapped on my mp3 player and away I went. Did a loop around Glen Carbon/Edwardsville - rolling hills, pretty hilly in some parts, but pretty flat in others. Decided to go out by feel and wanted to run a little harder due to missing so many runs this week. First 3 miles, was just cruising - didn't realize how fast I was going until I saw on my Garmin I had hit sub 7 the first 3, so was forced to slow down. Hit Meridian Road, the home of many grueling hill workouts, and shortened my stride to try to ease the "fun" of the hills. Got back out to a main road and got into a great rhythm. Ran through the university literally on the roads (gotta love the summer) and was feeling great - settled into BQ pace which felt very easy - the weather conditions were completely helping out - cool and breezy :) Went through the 10 mile split feeling like I had only run 5, and continued on. Last 3 miles were a gradual uphill, so started to tire a bit - started to play some mind games to pass some time. Made it back to my neighborhood, and finished the last mile and got back home in record long run time. Short cooldown, showered and stretched. Total mileage: ~14.5 miles - splits were: 6:49, 6:48, 6:57, 7:05, 7:16, 7:23, 7:11, 7:22, 7:09, 7:20, 7:24, 7:14, 7:15 (half marathon split was 1:33:58), 7:11.

Wow, where did that come from?! Perfect weather conditions = happy runner, so was ecstatic to hit those splits running by myself. Average pace was 7:11, so was pleased to have basically gotten in a long pace run like that. Wasn't thrilled that I only ran 4 days this week, but somehow got in 30 miles and obviously yesterday's long run was one of my best training runs ever so it all balances out. This week is race week, so will prob take it easy on effort. My last speed work is on Tuesday, so will push a little there but otherwise take it easier and just try to accumulate easy mileage.