Finally Hit It

Goal pace that is. But still kept banking time every mile…so I guess I really didn’t? This was my last run of any real kind of distance. Marathon in 8 days….ran 10 miles today under marathon goal pace. The key to finally not blowing myself up? Pace band. Runners world has these rad things and you just enter your goal time and it prints out a mile by mile time that you need to hit to get your goal. I wore one today and the only problem I had was trying to keep myself where I needed to be…but at least this gave me a pretty good idea. 10 miles at a 10:06 average pace. And I felt great when I was done…and if I could hold it for 10 miles..what’s 16 more right?



The kids are off this week for spring break. Dominic has his first official race this Saturday and is very excited. V is also running this…and is very pissed off at me because I told him I wasn’t going to pay for a race he hasn’t trained for. This is the one he took third in last year…and he has big plans to win it this year. He’s going to do some work for grandma today to earn his entrance fee. He’s done little to no running and I’ve kept my yap shut except for telling him I wasn’t paying for it….so we’ll see what he can do. I don’t think Dom has a goal time..just a finish time. He’s trained exclusively in his Skeltoes *ghetto Vibrams* and is feeling pretty confidant. He did his last run last night and is feeling ready. Saturdays forecast is calling for thunder storms and a hi of 59…which is just fine…except the wind is calling for 23mph winds..and it’s always way winder out there…that part will suck. Either way…I’m excited to watch these guys race and to be a spectator for a change.
8 Days

Torn

I know he doesn’t read this so I can vent here. V does not want to run track…and I am destroyed. A little background. V is a running prodigy see here…he beats adults on the 5K with no training. He took 3rd last spring on a 5K with almost no training…only a little from me and I don’t know what I’m doing. Not 3rd for his age group…3rd for the whole thing…taking first for the 13 to 18 age group...he had just turned 14 at the time. I can’t even imagine what this child could do under the hands of a real coach.



He ran last year…and really enjoyed it…until he got spanked on the mile in All City at the very end. I think quite a bit of him not wanting to do it this spring is fear of the unknown…and a little teenage laziness thrown in.


I don’t know what to do. There are certain things I will force my children to do…schoolwork, church…hygiene..things I know they need. But do I force something that I know he’ll be good at….and enjoy once he’s doing it? Or is that my dreams for him talking? I let him choose football over cross country this fall..because although he would have liked to…he couldn’t do both. And he rode the bench almost the entire season. But he’s always wanted to play football…so I let him….and it was a bust. He is such an amazing, natural runner that I can’t even believe it…such beauty and EASE when he runs. Here is one of my race reports about him.


Track starts this week….what would you do? I really need some feedback here folks.

"I just felt like running" Race Report

So I planned to do this race yesterday but as it turned out…I didn’t do a damn thing yesterday…and it was awesome.

Last night I texted with Lori and planned to meet her over on the path at 9. My plan as to go over there around 8:30…knock out this 5K and be done. I headed over there around 8:15 so I could take a couple of pics before I started. My only real plans for this race was to possibly bury my previous 5K pr from this past September which was a very unimpressive 28:28.


The Course.

The competitor..yeah right.

The course was covered in ice so I quickly decided to reroute this race.

The New Course.

So I found my starting line..part of a crosswalk and turned on my MP3…only to discover that while I thought I had been charging it all night…I had nothing. Oh well…I knew it was only 3 miles and then I’d have Lori to keep me entertained…so it wasn’t the end of the world.


Mile one headed dead into the wind that the weather man promised me wouldn’t be there today…but by .5 I turned around and headed back down the road. A good portion of this 5K was on my half marathon course from last spring….funny. Mile two I was already turned around because I had not encountered a single car and things were moving along nicely. Somewhere coming up on mile 3 I had to slow down due to possible hurling which didn’t end up happening. But the end result was….dah dah dah.

This!

I think I can safely say that I CRUSHED my previous PR from only a couple months ago. Is it the marathon training? The not smoking? Not sure….don’t really care. That time there is pushing respectable folks..and if I can do that on a virtual…what could I do with the real thing? That’s an improvement of 1 minute 19 seconds…or something like that.

Done.

After I was done and positively glowing…I met up with Lori and knocked out 7 more miles to make a lovely 10 mile day. I feel good…strong…ready for anything…including V turning 15 in two days.

Best Running Partner EVER!

This is a great place to run that Lori showed me today.  She called it the Enchanted Forrest...I call it one big ass pee fort!

Have a great week everyone and thanks for hosting this race Jeff!