Played golf on Thursday and then ran extra intervals that night. My times were all around what I wanted them to be, but not necessarily in the right order. This left me unsure of what to expect of myself at today’s race.
After I left the house, and just before I got on the freeway, I realized I forgot my watch, and ran back home. This made me even more nervous about trying to warm-up, get my number, and not being late. Without speeding, I got to the race with plenty of time to spare. Met my ma and step-dad walking to the registration, and fortunately don’t feel like I needed to entertain them. This allowed me to run for a 15 minute warm-up or so, and not worry about getting back to my car to drop off my sweatshirt and race bag, because ma was nice enough to grab it from me.
Today was another small race, maybe 75 people. Flat out and back course with the temps in the mid 50’s, but kinda windy. I lined up closer to the front today, and tried to get to the right when I realized that there was a jog in the road about 200 meters out. My first mile was 7:34, which I thought was too fast, but I felt great. Again, I was able to pick out a guy (in grey) early that I thought I could follow. About 1.25 miles in, I was passed by a guy in a red shirt, and tried following his cadence. I stayed with him, but his feet hit the ground too infrequently, as he was a good six inches taller than I. Saw my step-dad about half a mile after I turned around. He looked good and I felt good, so I yelled something about a nearby geocache. I don’t remember my two mile split, but the back of the one mile marker was 16:07, and I defiantly thought I could beat 24:00. The guy in the red shirt was caught with 400 or so left, and grey shirt and I sprinted in, and I finally passed him with 30 meters left. I wouldn’t let him go faster than me. (I sound all serious right there, but it was all in fun.) Through the chute and had over my number tag, start to stretch and realize I forgot to stop my watch. Oh well, results will be posted online. After my finish, I walked back and found my step-dad and ran the last ½ mile or so with him. He said I helped him in, so that’s a good thing, and he crushed his goal time of 35:00 with a 30:20. The online results have me with a 23:40, and I feel great about that.
Step-dad got around to asking me what my running goals are. I’ve been thinking about a 10k in early/mid June, and not much after that. Other than maybe a marathon next summer in Walker, MN. He wants to run an 8k somewhere in four weeks. A nice 8k sounds good to me, and there’s one in St. Paul the weekend he’d like.
What’s after that? Besides the birth of our kid and a complete change in my life that is. Any ideas as far as running is concerned?
Showing posts with label 5k. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 5k. Show all posts
Saturday, May 5, 2007
Monday, April 30, 2007
Nerves
A thunder storm is the only thing keeping me inside right now, instead of getting one more mile in so I could hit 100mi for the month. I'll be content with 99.1...
I basically ran all negative splits today for 4x4/200 intervals. My second 400 and third 200 were up one second. The last 400 and all the 200s were done on the local track. The school wasn’t using it, and I found the way in. So I did the Start-circle-Start-circle thing for the first time in 11 years or so. All my times were lower than expected. Because I felt they could have been even lower, I need to decide how fast I’d like to run my 5k this weekend. Last time I wanted under 25:30, and I’m not sure if shooting for 24:00 is unreasonable?
Our A league team has one game left on the schedule. And we can’t finish any lower than first place. We beat the second place team yesterday, and it felt good after we lost to them the first time we played. It would actually mean something if we got the next fall league free for winning this spring league, which happens some places. But not here.
More baby classes this week. At work this morning I got very anxious, almost like a panic attack, because I’m not sure our house is ready. I’ve got to finish a couple projects and would like a new kitchen, and I wanted to leave work to get these things done. About five minutes later, I realized this is my way of being nervous. Mostly your typical Provider type concerns scattering throughout my head. And it’s all irrational thinking, because I know I’ll be a good dad. I’ve been preparing for this since mine walked out, and I picked up his racquetball racquet and thought “I need to learn this game to be the man of the house.” I was six.
It’s our second anniversary, our last without kids running about, and I’m watching hockey, and my wife is doing homework, both listening to thunder. Party animals I tell ya.
I still have the racquet.
I basically ran all negative splits today for 4x4/200 intervals. My second 400 and third 200 were up one second. The last 400 and all the 200s were done on the local track. The school wasn’t using it, and I found the way in. So I did the Start-circle-Start-circle thing for the first time in 11 years or so. All my times were lower than expected. Because I felt they could have been even lower, I need to decide how fast I’d like to run my 5k this weekend. Last time I wanted under 25:30, and I’m not sure if shooting for 24:00 is unreasonable?
Our A league team has one game left on the schedule. And we can’t finish any lower than first place. We beat the second place team yesterday, and it felt good after we lost to them the first time we played. It would actually mean something if we got the next fall league free for winning this spring league, which happens some places. But not here.
More baby classes this week. At work this morning I got very anxious, almost like a panic attack, because I’m not sure our house is ready. I’ve got to finish a couple projects and would like a new kitchen, and I wanted to leave work to get these things done. About five minutes later, I realized this is my way of being nervous. Mostly your typical Provider type concerns scattering throughout my head. And it’s all irrational thinking, because I know I’ll be a good dad. I’ve been preparing for this since mine walked out, and I picked up his racquetball racquet and thought “I need to learn this game to be the man of the house.” I was six.
It’s our second anniversary, our last without kids running about, and I’m watching hockey, and my wife is doing homework, both listening to thunder. Party animals I tell ya.
I still have the racquet.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
I Want to Go Again
Racing was a blast. Running with a group of people seems easier than running alone every day. Now I really hope a couple of my buddies catch the bug like they keep saying they want to. I learned a lot today; like I can run harder longer, and should have pushed more for negative splits (7:59, 8:10, 8:56 for last 1.1). And I wish now that I'd know where the Finish line was before the race started.
Considering myself a novice, I mostly tried to do what those who looked like real runners did. I waited just in front of the couples holding hands at the start, and was able to pick out a couple of people early on that I thought I could follow. I passed the first guy just over a mile in, and finished about 10 seconds behind the other guy. At the end, a different guy that I leapfrogged a couple of times, asked about the tattoo on my right calf. He used it to recognize me as someone to pace off of. That felt nice.
The tattoo is the Serenity Prayer. I’ve been clean for 8 years, 6 months, and 4 days. Since that day in ’98, I’ve picked up all the habits I had before I got involved heavily with drugs. It started with enjoying family, golf, hockey, dogs; and more recently, loving and anticipating my own family. Crossing a bridge over the Mississippi, it occurred to me that running a race is the last hobby for me to regain. Of course it’s not really a hobby yet, it was only one race. But I think I’ll do it again. (That almost the exact same phrase I used to become a vegetarian, eight years ago.)
After the first half mile, I realized I passed many of the real runners I’d first used as benchmarks. But not the guy pushing the stroller. And I wanted advice on buying my own.
Considering myself a novice, I mostly tried to do what those who looked like real runners did. I waited just in front of the couples holding hands at the start, and was able to pick out a couple of people early on that I thought I could follow. I passed the first guy just over a mile in, and finished about 10 seconds behind the other guy. At the end, a different guy that I leapfrogged a couple of times, asked about the tattoo on my right calf. He used it to recognize me as someone to pace off of. That felt nice.
The tattoo is the Serenity Prayer. I’ve been clean for 8 years, 6 months, and 4 days. Since that day in ’98, I’ve picked up all the habits I had before I got involved heavily with drugs. It started with enjoying family, golf, hockey, dogs; and more recently, loving and anticipating my own family. Crossing a bridge over the Mississippi, it occurred to me that running a race is the last hobby for me to regain. Of course it’s not really a hobby yet, it was only one race. But I think I’ll do it again. (That almost the exact same phrase I used to become a vegetarian, eight years ago.)
After the first half mile, I realized I passed many of the real runners I’d first used as benchmarks. But not the guy pushing the stroller. And I wanted advice on buying my own.
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