Week (bakers dozen - 1) The First 5k

This Week's Goal I am racing at Ben Brown Invite at CSU Fullerton on Saturday. The 5k is usually the most stacked of the season with 4 sections with the first two sections won in under 15 minutes and the 3rd won in 15:10 or so. Each heat has around 35-40 runners so the pack gets rolling pretty quickly. I enter a seed time of around 15:25 with the hopes of sneaking into the 2nd section, but if not I will still be pushed and be near the front. Thus place wise I have no goal, not knowing what section I will be in, however I do have a few time goals. Mainly it would be awesome if I hit the seed time I entered.  Using my mile time pr I should be able to hit around 15:15. Goal is 15:20.

Monday (4.5 miles) Woke up at 830 am to head out on a run with Kramer. Took it nice and easy and did about 4.5 miles over 30 minutes. Left calve hurt a little bit, but made it through without too much pain. Took some IBproofurine felt better, but kinda funny. Not really a big pill kid.

Tuesday (8 miles) Went out and just ran for a while, just over 50 minutes. A little tightness in the left calf but no pain so a big improvement over yesterday.

Wednesday (10 miles) Upped the time again to see how the leg would respond. It had no trouble, I think I will do the workout tomorrow with the BSK squad at UCSD.

Thursday (10 miles) Headed out at 520 AM. Did 1.5 mile warm up and then 1 mile Bowerman strides. Workout was 600-400-300-200-100 at 5k race pace with 200m jog recovery between reps and 1 mile jog recovery between sets. I did 2 sets because I am racing on Saturday and I don't want to rush my calf back into shape. Each set was 2.5 miles so 5 miles total on the track work. Then 1.5 mile cool down.

Friday (5 miles) Today was a pre-meet. Went out and ran 35 minutes. Felt relaxed and good. I am excited about tomorrow. Also saw the Watchman and liked it, so suck it h8ters.

Saturday (10.5 miles) Warm up for just over 16 minutes (2.5 miles) then got back to the track and started doing pre race stretches and strides. It was really cold but I didn't really feel it too much. My body felt fine before the race and for the first time I thought I might pop a big one. However, the race was started very quickly without any instruction, and the next thing I know, I am hauling ass with 40 other guys on the turn trying very hard not to get stepped on or tripped up. I was pretty deep in a pack of, well the entire field and feeling very uneasy about life. About 2 laps in a guy went down right in front of me. I managed to get out of the way but was thrown even more out of my pace because of it. Gurney went down hard. A few laps later I was spiked in the knee and started to bleed quite a bit, and that shit Fuck'n hurt. I hit 4:54 for mile one and 9:56 for mile 2 I believe but I can't be held to those times, for I was just looking at the clock as I rolled by. A large group made a push around mile 1.5 and because of how buried I was I couldn't make up the group right away. I tried in vein for the next 4 laps to make up the lost ground but found myself alone for a good 20m front and back and thus lost track of pace for a while there. I paid hard for it, but I was able to pick up a few guys dropping off the back of the lead pack. Afterwards I headed out and just hammered for over 25 minutes (4.75 miles) on the warm up grass area. I clocked 15:44.87. Not pleased with that result at all, but it is 4s of last years time and with a lot less training put in, and I was injured this week. I jogged around a little bit after getting back and then we headed out and I got a Chipotle burrito.  Oh well I am going to be off racing for a while and just focus on training. I don't have many races for a while, which should be good for me. Also tomorrow is to be a 90 minute LSD so I should hit 60 miles this week despite having an awesome...wait... terrible start to this week.

Sunday (14 miles) I really don't feel like mapping out this run, but I know it was under 7 minute pace, however, by how much I don't know. It was a 90+ minute run so I will just assume 14 and maybe some of the extra jogging around I have done this week will make up that mileage ( at most .5 over). Calves felt tight at the beginning but never in pain. A good long run. Chipotle and 21 choices afterwards with Roxy. A good day indeed. Tomorrow/today I will return to San Diego with a renewed sense of motivation to get my ass in gear and up the mileage since I am back to 100%.

Mileage  as of...now! (62 miles)