St. Pat's Weekend

Lawi Lawang goes for NCAA 3 banger, Moses Mosop, Mo Farah ready for NYC Half, World Indoor Championships analysis, be careful running in national parks, Bernard Lagat, and Alan Webb.

Monday, March 10th - ~5.5 miles.  Ran the Runwell group run with Pat and Crystal, since Pifer was in town repping his Newton kicks.  Got to wear test a pair of Newtons (I'm sad to say I don't know the exact model but they were yellow and Red - Crystal called them McDonalds shoes lol), but unfortunately Newtons don't have any wide shoes for my fat feet so it was quite a tight fit.  Regardless, Newton's claim to fame in their shoe technology is they load up the cushioning on their mid foot area, which almost feels like you're running with a little log in that area.  In my case, that's where I usually strike so I had this trampoline effect which provided some extra bounce in my step, and quite honestly a very good feeling.  Anyways, we ran from the store to the trails (on Governor's Parkway) to the high school to do strides, then headed back.  It got pretty warm on this run (up to 80!), and almost yearned for colder temps if that's possible.  Legs were sore, but felt good.  ~7:50ish average pace.

Tuesday, March 11th - ~6 miles.  Ran at the track with Colby, Crystal, and Megan.  Track work for all on a windy day, and my idea to run track was quickly vanquished with my legs feeling like poop so jogged many laps as I cheered everyone else on.  Crystal dragged me to do some 200's with her, so hit a few too fast but was fun to get some turnover.  Cooled down with Colby, then Crystal later to round up a decent mileage day.  200 repeats were: 34, 36, 33.

Wednesday, March 12th - ~6 miles (5x800).  Workout with Tim on the trails.  Ran down to Village Circle, and did some dynamic stretching to get ready for the workout I actually laid out for myself with a little help from Crystal (Coach Kyle is on work travel).  Goal was to hit half mile repeats at 5K effort or so, and I took a longer recovery just because at this point I need it.  We laid out the half mile between the trail entrance and the trail towards Troy, which has natural landmarks at splits points which makes the run a lot easier, visually.  Because of the short distance and my watch settings, it was difficult to really track time/distance (Garmin customized workouts aggregates the total distance and rest time) so I was truly going by effort.  Anyways, made it a point to start out hard but try to relax and stay controlled, and could feel the burn at the end of every repeat but powered through.  Very pleased to see my splits afterwards, and made it hurt at the end.  Everything was faster than I had anticipated, and the slight head/tail wind made no difference for my times.  Tim did quarters, and looked very strong on his workout - great to have good company!  Slow cooldown to finish out a successful workout.  Splits were: 2:45 (estimated - forgot to press "start"), 2:52, 2:52, 2:51, 2:39.

Thursday, March 13th - 6 miles.  St. Pat's course preview with Crystal, Craig, Hilary, Tim, Huelsmann, Gibbs, and Heidi.  Met downtown on a windy, chilly but nice evening and did the course route.  Because of some nasty traffic delaying some of the runners and us getting cold, we started a mini loop around Kiener Plaza which was roughly 0.33 miles.  All the race port-a-potties were lined up in that area we circled, which was an interesting sight to see.  Anyways, we eventually got started, and I was given the dubious honor of setting the pace, so we navigated through the lovely St. Pat's Course.  I had forgotten how tricky the roads of STL could be, as you need a little strategy with some of the later climbs.  Even though you slingshot downhill on Olive, there are still a couple hills towards Tucker that can tear you up, so you need to be careful on the points you surge.  Anyways, led the group through with no issues as the girls, Huelsmann, and I formed a lead pack and hammered through the course for a fun jaunt around the city.  7:30-7:40 average, overall.

Another bittersweet weekend, as I will not be racing St. Pat's this year for many reasons, but I am excited to see the elites run this year, and join my friends in arguably the funnest racing day of the year!