The trip to central Pennsylvania provided the opportunity for a couple of good runs over new terrain twice this week. On our way into Weikert, I had marked out what I thought would be the five mile mark and set to run to that last Sunday. I made it there and back again, 39 minutes out, 41 minutes back but it wasn't exactly five miles. The spot turned out to be 4.5 miles away for a total run of nine miles. Close, and all-in-all a good run. Rolling farm country. Tree covered ridges along the perimeter.
On Wednesday, I ran to the 2.5 mile mark I had noted when measuring the Sunday run. The same rolling farm country but shorter distance made for a different run. The weather was cooler so that also helped. I went out in 22 minutes and came back in 21. A good run.
On Thursday, I did 8 x 100 meter pickups at the track and then a good 200. The weather was cooler still (about 50 degrees) and I was cautious warming up and striding to see that I was good and loose before turning on some speed.
On Saturday, I ran with my daughter for an easy four miles through town and then went on to add on another two mile loop for a total of six for the day.
Today there were four of us for the Pacer's ten mile group (there were seven others for the six mile run). I managed to stay with the other three until about the four mile mark when they started to pick up the pace. I left out a one mile loop at the five mile mark and turned back to finish the course with four miles to go. I knew that with four to go, getting ahead of the other three would help to keep my pace up so they would not catch me before the finish. If I had stayed behind them, I would have continued to loose contact with them and ended up running slower (and one less mile) but the pace/effort was more important than the extra mile. I did slow somewhat but managed to stay enough on pace so that they did not catch me.
The first open track meet at the high school comes up on Wednesday. My first shot at running the 400. There will be five more times to meet my goal. Hopefully, I will meet it without needing to use all six attempts. Based upon what I have done thus far, it may still take a couple of tries. It will depend on how fresh I am coming into Wednesday.
With the Pacers hill workout scheduled for Tuesday's I may have to adjust what I would do there at least once. We'll see how it goes.
I hope your running finds you healthy and fresh.
If not, what can you change to be fresh for a run?
If you would like some suggestions, post a comment or send me an email.
Enjoy!
