Wednesday, May 7th – 6 miles. Forest Park run with Craig, Crystal, and
Colby. Nasty hot/humid day, and the
pollen was completely out of control!
Colby and Crystal broke away after a little over a mile, and Craig and I
suffered the rest of the way in. I don’t
know the total time, but it was pretty slow!
Thursday, May 8th – 6 miles. 45:48.
I either ran this with Crystal, or with Yoch. I think I ran with Jon over on the trails by
his place – out and back, and we negative split every mile. My notes say I had 0 energy, allergies were
beyond bad, and nasty outside, so it must have been all that. Decent time, all things considering. The shade on that point of the trail made everything
so much easier…
Friday, May 9th – 4 miles. Short, easy run – out and back towards
trail. Decided at the last moment to do
a local 5K in O’Fallon, IL with Colby and Megan. Definitely feeling better and ready to
rumble!
Saturday, May 10th – 7 miles (DISCOVERY PIRATES
5K – 19:20, 2nd place overall).
Out and back course over in O’Fallon, IL, not too far from Far Oaks Golf
Course. This small school that hosted
the race was actually Yoch’s elementary school, so didn’t want to disappoint
the proud alumni. Course was an out and
back – local roads, through a neighborhood, to a trail (very similar to the
ones I run on at home) which ends into another neighborhood to a turnaround,
then back. Colby and I warmed up on the
bike paths nearby (beautiful park right across the street), and got ready to
rumble on a pretty nice, warmish/sunny morning.
No competition there, and basically was running for a good time. Got a little nervous, as my watch GPS was
acting really weird and thought I had lost the distance function (thus,
eliminating myself from pacing feedback whatsoever), but got it back shortly
into the race and tried to get locked in.
The race plan was to hit 6:10, 6:10, then whatever I had the last
mile. Anyways, went out a little quick,
but leveled out and felt like I was in cruise control. Getting on the trail was nice, as it was
heavily shaded and could relax as we went down a small hill coming off the
trail into the neighborhood. Could see
Colby not too far ahead, and maintained effort as I worked myself towards the
finish. Hit the 2 mile split right at
12:08, and was feeling good and hopped back on the trail and readied myself for
a last mile onslaught. We had to make a
90 degree turn to get off the trail to finish out the race, and there was a
gravel path which we were turning onto which led to the neighborhood roads. Well, I tried to cut the turn tight since I
didn’t want to slow down any, and planted my right foot into the dewey
grass. Next thing I knew, I was skidding
across the gravel path, and laying on the ground stunned as I took the mother
of all falls. After a few seconds, I
snapped out of it, and got up and starting running again much to the dismay of
the volunteers close by who told me to stay down. Adrenaline carried me for a couple minutes
but I was pretty much toast after that burst, and couldn’t keep the intensity
up to finish out the race. Finished 2nd
overall, comfortably, and cooled down with Colby while waiting for Megan to
finish her race. Disappointed that this
race could have been a really fast one for me, but had great effort, some
ridiculous battle wounds, and a great story to tell. 19:20 was my 5K, time, warmup/cooldown were
high 7’s/low 8’s.
 |
| Prerace |
 |
| Talking race strategy, or probably making fun of someone |
 |
| Action shot |
 |
| Here we go! (why won't my watch work???) |
 |
| Ouch! |
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| Post race with Colby and Megan |
 |
| Champion |
 |
| 1-2 |
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| Franklin's new toy |
Sunday, May 11th – 8 miles. 40 miles this week, 77 miles in May, 806.5
miles in 2014.
Monday, May 12th - ~6 miles. Big River group run at Queeny Park with
Craig. Another death march in evil
Queeny, as it was a hot day but we were saved by the heavy winds which cooled
the air considerably. The hills
destroyed me almost immediately, and we kept a pretty slow pace the entire
way. The first 4 miles of the loop are
pretty much climb after climb, but it gets a lot better towards the end. Big River did a poker run, where there were
stations every mile where you would pick a card – best hand at the end won a free
pair of shoes! Unfortunately, my busted
straight Ace high hand didn’t win jack.
Tuesday, May 13th – 8 miles - 2 up, (5 x (2x400,
1x200)), 200m and 400 m jog, 1 down.
Rainy, windy, but cool evening at the track with Megan, Alisha, Jon, and
special guest Stephen Pifer who got hired for pacing duties. We warmed up on the roads, and nailed the
workout. A huge thanks to Stephen for
pacing me through after his time trial earlier in the day! This workout was so much easier having me
just sitting, and conserving energy.
Splits were: (1:23, 1:28, 40), (1:27, 1:28, 40), (1:26, 1:27, 39),
(1:28, 1:27, 41), (1:25, 1:22, 37).
Wednesday, May 14th – ~6 miles. Route 66 10K course preview run with
Crystal. 7:40ish average pace. Wet day, but had fun out on the trails and
had to slow down at many points to keep it under control. Forgot how tricky Route 66 course could be,
at least the first half with a couple tricky hills and a ton of turns.
Thursday, May 15th - 6 miles. Morning run with Crystal. Out and back on Home Depot – 8:08 average
pace, overall. As you can tell, lack of
descriptions on these morning runs as I’m usually sleepwalking. Off to Jamaica for a quick vacation with Megan on Friday!
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