Trying to get competitive

It was just a simple 5 mile run.  I went a bit quick, but not very.  I didn't want to push things before Saturday's race

This is my first semi-competitive race in about 10 years.  I hadn't trained as much as I would have liked (I ran about twice a week).  This was also my first distance race longer than 5-10K.

My goal for this race was two-fold: to finish strong and to go as fast as I could without dying early.  I feel like I accomplished it.  For the first 3.2 miles I was just under 6:30 pace.  After the course flattened out, I slowed a bit.  By 9 miles my legs were cramping a bit, and I had some knee and foot pains.  After a mile my knees were better, but my legs and feet ached to the end.

 I wasn't as familiar with the course as I should have been, so I didn't push it through the end (I didn't want to speed up the last mile to find out there were 2 miles left).

 If I did it again, I would have pushed a bit harder through the last 4 miles, but I learned.



 

This morning I woke up at 6 to go for a workout.  In my warm-up I was still pretty stiff from Saturday's race.   My knees weren't hurting like they were yesterday or friday, but my muscles are pretty stiff.

 I decided to do a 5x800 meter workout.  My target pace for this was 6:00 mile pace.  Between each interval, I rested for about 1:30.  My times were as follows: 3:07, 2:58, 2:53, 2:57, 2:57.  The first was a bit slow as I was trying to find the right pace (and I had a watch problem).  They actually were a bit easier as I did a few more.  I dry-heaved after the 3rd and at-the-end-of/after the 4th (it's a good thing I hadn't eaten).  However, after the last leg, I was fine. I think I just need to work on not dry-heaving.

 I felt pretty good about the workout. I need to build up my speed and mileage, but today was a good start.

 

RPE: 3

Today was just a easy run.  I am still a bit tight from yesterday's workout (and probably from Saturday).  It wasn't too bad, though.

RPE: 7

 I wasn't really in the mood to run today.  After warming up fo ra mile, I ran 3 miles at 6:20, 6:30, and 6:30 pace.  I really meant to run 4 miles, but I got lazy.  I really think I could have done another mile at this pace.

I then warmed down for a mile. 

RPE 2.

 I ran an easy 5 miles today (40 minutes). It felt pretty good.

Easy 12.17 miles.  I enjoyed running at the beginning in the rain.  After 1:20, I was about ready to be done.  It wasn't difficult, I was just done running on long straight flat roads.  I felt good afterwards.  I was really close at the end to running another mile, but I was done.  It took 1:35.

RPE: 3

It was just an easy 4 miles. I am really enjoying running each morning. Each day I wake up excited to run. I wanted to run intervals, but I couldn't find my watch in the dark.

RPE: 9

Today I warmed up for 1 mile and then ran 7x800m. The times were (in order): 2:52, 2:56, 2:57, 2:57, 2:56, 2:55, 2:41.

These were a bit faster than last weeks reps. I also did more. I feel like I am gradually getting better. The last one took a lot out of me. I felt good after the cool-down, though.

RPE: 7

This is just a guess at mileage. I ran for 19 minutes up a mountain. It then took me 8 minutes to run down. It was pretty killer, but after running downhill I felt fine.

RPE: 8

 
Today was an interval day.  I ran 6x1000m with 2 minutes rest in between. The legs were in 3:42, 3:41, 3:41, 3:38, 3:44, and 3:34.  I was pretty beat at the end (I pushed that last interval hard), but it wasn't nasty.  It was good to start up a good running week again.