Monday: 8 Miles. Four person group run. Pretty slow pace until I got lost from them, realized I was short on time and sprinted back (not sprint, but fast). Extremely hot, and I felt it not only on the run but at school as well.
Tuesday: 6 Miles. Narragansett Hill Repeats (6). Difficulty of Workout: 2/5
Wednesday: 6 Miles. Mostly Solo Run (last mile was not solo and that's part of the reason the pace dropped). Did 5 really fast with average 6:30 pace, then took a long break and ran the last mile back slow with a teammate. Last year we had 8-10 Cross country runners, and I've heard they had five the year before. Today, the 22nd and 23rd XC runners joined. (and we had about five at the first meeting, about eight the first practice)
Thursday: 5 Miles. Hill Workout. Fingers today (2). Fingers are a little more exciting than hill repeats, because you're doing the same distance over smaller but steeper hills and running on several hills instead of just one. It was more tiring, though. Running up ward and linden were the most difficult. Difficulty of Workout: 3/5.
Friday: 5.5 Miles. Warm-up and easy paced group run before first meet. East ave loop. Pace a little slow for me, but I didn't complain since I had a meet tomorrow, and the other people in the group seemed tired.
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| New Balance XC Spikes (I think 700v3) made their debut Saturday. |
Saturday: 5 Miles, Injury Fund Meet @ Burrillville. Coming off success at Schonning, I was hoping for sub-17. If I had my last mile at Schonning a 5:19, I could surely lower those first two by a few seconds. So, A Goal of 16:59 or better and B goal of 17:15. The weather was great, especially since I had been really hot the entire week. We didn't get the best weather, because we were running at 10:30 instead of 9:30, but it was probably cooler than the races at 12:30 at 1:30. The Injury Fund Carnival is a cool meet because even though you don't face every team in the state, they're all there. The teams are sorted out into four different races, and we were in the second. I wasn't nervous until heading towards the starting line where I had a why do I run moment.
A few strides, a 10 minute delay because the girls in the previous race ran off course, and the gun went off. The two big teams in the race were Hendricken and North Kingstown. I absolutely hate the XC race starts. Especially for the big ones. They usually start on a big field, and it is completely crowded. Everyone sprints out to get a good spot, and everyone wastes a lot of energy with that sprint. I went very fast across the field, and I was in a great position once it cleared. The position was great and it never ended up being crowded for me. I started in about 6th or 7th. Only Hendricken runners were ahead of me. At a quarter mile I was passed by a pair of NK runners who I recognized. The quarter mile split was called about by a Hendricken coach: 58, 59. I knew it started fast, but that seemed ridiculous, considering how I run slower than that for my first lap in an 800.
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| I'm the 5th runner from the left. |
We entered the trails. It started with a steep, rocky downhill followed by a sharp turn. It was difficult to run on and you could heard spikes scraping against the rocks, and people having trouble with the sharp turn. I hung with the NK guys until a hill half a mile in where they gained a second or two on me. The hill was soft sand and hard to run. The course came back near the starting line, and we started lap two. It wasn't the same lap, this one was much longer and had different turns. We went out the same way. Place wasn't changing much. They called out mile one somewhere- 5:09 or 5:10.
Geez, I didn't realize I was going that fast because I actually felt good and not really tired. One of the NK guys, the one wearing one arm sleeve dropped back when we entered the trails again. I continued to stay right behind the other NK runner- I beat him at track, but he was usually far ahead of me in cross country. After a long stretch on trails, we got out again and it was right around mile 2. Mile 2 split was not called. The next half-mile was uneventful except for one hill where he put a few seconds on me.
With half a mile to go, we were back in the trails, and I passed him. We ran on the soft sand hill again but he passed me back. I passed him again right after the hill and picked up the pace to stay in front of him. In the final stretch there was a grass uphill then downhill. I thought I put distance on him, but the way people were cheering, it seemed that he was right behind. I picked it up just a bit and held him off to the finish. I was shocked to see the clock: 16:22, 16:23. It took a minute to process my massive PR. I finished 6th in the race, and official time was 16:26. One of my best races ever and a minute ahead of my third best time. A 36 second PR. Results here.
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| Barely held him off |
Sunday: 10 Mile Group Run (Dad, Me, B, and B's friend Eric). Went on some pretty cool roads with great views of the water. Perfect weather and a definitely a good time to run. Good, comfortable pace (although the last mile was a little tough for me) and it was a pretty good run.
Weekly Total: 45.5 Miles
I am extremely happy with this week's mileage because I had a lot of fast miles in there and also did more miles (31 last week, 29 week before and averaged mid-30s in the summer).
Excellent!
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