A New PR, Time for the Next Cycle

Well - I'm back from my extended East Coast trip. I spent most of my time in New Jersey. Despite it's reputation as a dump (in large part thanks to Newark), much of New Jersey is heavily forested. I was hoping that I would be there in time for Autumn colors. But, the weather back there this year was awesome! I found out when I got there that it hasn't been cold yet, so it was too early for fall colors. The weather was so nice that it was just like Southern California on the East Coast last week!

I decided before I left that I was going to put training on the back burner for a week. My body would most likely appreciate the rest (I was starting to feel some fatigue during the final weeks of the program). Plus, I wasn't going to need to to try to find running routes. Anyone who has spent time in New Jersey understands - most of the major roads do not have sidewalks.

I'm back now, so it's time to start up again. On Monday, I will be starting the Higdon Intermediate Half Marathon plan culminating in the Southern California Half Marathon on January 10th. I'm going to ramp up the first couple of weeks to put my mileage back on the 35 to 40 per week to start and into the 50's on peak.

Finally, before I left last Saturday, I ran the Harbor Heritage 5K here in Newport Beach. I set a new PR, but I was still a little disappointed at my performance. I was hoping to break 26 minutes. But I was caught near the back of the pack at the start (becuase I wasn't paying attention) and had to pick my way through the crowds for the first mile. Then, it was a beautiful day - but very dry. I started having some breathing problems at mile 2 with a dry throat and cough, so had to slow down a little to grab some water and catch my breath. I ended up with an 8:40 split over mile 2, which pretty much shot my chance at 26 minutes. My other two miles ( mile 1 and mile 3) were at 8:20. The 26 minute pace was an 8:22. So, bottom line was a 26:11. That put my 12 of 24 in my age group, and 241 out of 656 overall. Not bad, but I had expected better. Guess I need to put in the miles and keep my nose to the grindstone!

Fluid Schedule?

So, yesterday was supposed to be a six mile recovery run. But, I got a call from my wife reminding me that we had a College Counseling seminar for parents at my youngest son's school. I wasn't planning on attending, having gone through this twice with my other kids, but she kind of insisted, so I juggled my schedule to make room. Bottom line was an unscheduled rest day.

Not a big deal - except I was planning on using today for my easy six miler. Well, later in the afternoon I got a call from my middle son. He is having the normal shock of freshman Physics over at UCI. At least he is being proactive about this and trying to work through the problem. He's going to be home today so we can go over some of his homework problems and past tests. I am hoping that I can get out this evening once done, but I'm not going to hold my breath. I am sure that I'll get pretty wrapped up in his work because I love Physics! Honestly! I really enjoyed the challenge of an hour per homework problem to get the math right solving problems! I'm actually looking forward to this evening.

If I can't get my run in today, then I'm most likely cancelling, since I will doing a 5K on Saturday morning. Maybe a short 4 miler or something tomorrow will be okay. The 5K on Saturday is the Harbor Heritage 5K. It's just a quickie run less than 10 minutes from home here in Newport Beach. 500 to 600 runners, no chip timing, etc., but it's close! It's also the first race I ever ran. I think the weather is supposed to be good - unlike last year where we had rain on race day. This is my first actual running race since the RnR Marathon last June. Of course there will be a report here when I'm done.

Oh by the way - the college meeting? I did learn something new - starting this year, students can choose which SAT sitting they want to submit to colleges they are applying to. This means that there is no longer a penalty for doing poorly on an SAT test and students can take the test as many times as they want. In the past, colleges saw all SAT scores and could choose the ones they wanted to use. Now, they will only see the results that a student submits. I hope this takes some of the pressure off the kids that take the test.

Tired Thursday

I did my speed work yesterday at the track. Two mile warm up, 8 X 400 with 400 rest, one mile warm down. One thing for sure - fall is in the air! It's getting dark earlier these days. Got started around 5 PM, finished just after 6PM as the sun was going down over the horizon.

I think these workouts are taking a toll on me. I've been pretty tired the past few days. No other physical ailments - just physically tired. Despite taking Wednesday off, I was pretty tired last night and am on the verge of exhaustion this morning. Maybe I'm catching a cold or something.

On a related note, I did finally register for my October race, the Harbor Heritage Run on October 11th. This race will always have a soft space in my heart because it was my first ever race! One year ago this was my inaugural race! I'll be hoping to set a new 5K PR this year!

Today I'll go out for either 4 or 4 and a half easy miles.