Williams Syndrome Association 5K Recap

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Saturday, October 6th - 7 miles (1 up, Williams Syndrome Association 5K (20:07 1st place), 3 down).  Crazy Friday night which involved us getting kicked out of a hotel room for noise violation (allegedly might I add), and a late night with a pair of dice, good friends, and a crap ton of adult beverages equals a mess.  So Shane and I woke up early, and tried to get Marc and Tim up for the race which was pretty much a lost cause.  Realized the race was an hour later, so opted to go back to bed for an hour since we were both exhausted.  Didn't really fall asleep, but got up and attempted to get Shane, but he was completely passed out.  So drove down to Jackson, MO which was the next town over, roughly 10 minutes away.  Out in the country, with some long, steep hills.  Got to the race start which was in a church parking lot, picked up shirts and packets, then warmed up on the race course.  The course was laid out as a big rectangle, and started up this ridiculous hill which was probably a good 5% grade and about a quarter mile long.  The initial plan was to run with all the groomsmen but seeing I was the only one there, I adjusted my plan to doing a tempo.  So the gun went off, and I immediately jumped out hard and hit the hill going pretty fast.  Decided not to look back until the first mile, and when I did there was nobody there!  So tried to settle into tempo pace, but hit some nasty hills on the second mile which wreaked havoc on my pace.  Finally, got settled into a somewhat easier pace and cruised in for the win.  Cooled down afterwards and cheered in the rest of the runners since I finished a good 6 minutes in front of 2nd place.  Splits were: 5:55 (oops), 6:50 (hills), 6:24.  Course was long, and guessing I was more in the 19:30-19:40 range.  Nice run for me, considering the nasty hills.  Marc and Trisha's wedding afterwards - fun times!

Sunday, October 7th - 6 miles.  Got home from Cape and was just exhausted and worn out.  Today was supposed to be long run, but pretty much crapped out on it.  6 miles in the p.m., and very slow.  Somewhere in the 55-60 minute range.  Lost track of mileage, but I think the last 2 weeks were 28, and 33 which had me at 1350 for 2012.

Monday, October 8th - 7.5 miles.  Ran GO! Halloween 10K preview with Pat, Crystal, and Fenley.  Started downtown, then weaved through Soulard and the brewery before heading back into the city to finish.  I ran the 10K last year, and had a lot of fun with it - tough course starting out the first half with some tough climbs, but the 2nd half is pretty easy and you can go fast.  I don't know the total time, but we went pretty easy.

Tuesday, October 9th - 7 miles (2 up, 12x400 meters, 2 down).  My back was a complete mess all day, and this workout was in complete jeopardy.  Drove up to the track, and warmed up there.  Was hobbling pretty good, and attempted to loosen up.  Really thought I was going to call it quits, and did some strides to help out.  Well, I loosened up enough where I thought I would try a couple and see if I could do it, and ended up doing the complete workout.  The plan was 3 sets of 4-400's with minute rest in between reps, 2 minutes rest between sets, then cutting down 2-3 seconds per set.  Weather was perfect, and felt decent for the most part.  Stride length was about 70% though, and was running more flat footed than I would have liked.  Had issues with the first few sets by going out too hard, so need to work on pacing some more.  But the last set, I was pretty much on.  Cooled down, then stretched for a long time in hopes to loosen up.  Same back ailment that flares up from time to time (most notably before Houston).  Splits were: 1:27, 1:27, 1:27, 1:26, 1:24, 1:24, 1:23, 1:25, 1:20, 1:21, 1:20, 1:18).

Back is slightly better today, but still hobbling a bit.  Easy mileage tonight, then some speed work tomorrow pending on my condition.