May 7 - Maryland Alumni Mile

AM: 3 miles easy

PM: Mile track race, 4:36.7 (PR); 7 miles

This race ended up being a lot more fun than I'd expected. I thought that it could very well be me running this thing alone, but instead I was pleasantly surprised to find a cast of characters ready to run, including several old teammates. All I wanted today was to break my soft 4:42 mile PR today. When I say "soft," I mean relative to times that I've run in other distances. I've even tried to do this before with sometimes frustrating outcomes.

Actually, coming back to College Park, I was reminded that in college, I wasn't even allowed to race the mile...ever. It's not exactly my strongest event. And to be fair, I felt like I could have run 2 miles at the pace I ran tonight, but running faster would be challenging (though I think I have a sub-4:30 in there eventually).

Unfortunately, because Valerie and I got caught in traffic driving over, I got to the start of the race with about 20 minutes to spare, giving me enough time for less than 10 minutes to warm up. It wasn't ideal, but this was a pretty low-key "race," if you can even call it that. Because the UMD track doesn't have a mile starting line, meet officials measured the extra eight meters, lining us up across strips of tape and paper cups. 

Though old teammate/roommate Josh Davis beat me for the win, today my main concern was getting some low-hanging PR fruit, running close to even splits (68-69). I was happy to do that much and end the spring racing season on a high note, later watching Murphy race the 1500 and catching up with a few people. Plus, the alumni race was sort of disorganized and fun, which in a weird way was sort of of a welcome respite from recent road racing.

My plan now is to take a few days off to refresh myself (yes...you read that correctly) before picking things up again next week and using the next two-plus months before moving to Durham as a true base period where the #1 emphasis is going to be mileage. I want to build my mileage up to the level that I want to peak with this fall but without the pressure of racing and strict workouts at the same time. Basically, I want to see how my body responds to the mileage first before I dive into increasing both volume and intensity in the fall.

I won't race again until mid-June, and I could even be talked into racing another mile again at some point this summer.

May 6

AM: 8 miles easy, 5 x:10 hill sprints

Just one easy run today through muddy Rock Creek Park. In a bit of an experiment, since tomorrow is sort of a low-key, season-ending race, I did hill sprints instead of the traditional pre-race day strides today because I like the pop they give my legs afterward.

May 5

AM: 6 x .25-mile @ mile pace w/ 1:30 recovery jog, 7 miles

PM: 5 miles slow and easy

I ran a brief workout on the Meadowbrook bike path, just to get a feel for mile pace and open up my stride. I'm hoping like hell that I can just break 4:40 in the mile on Thursday night. Given my times in distances from 2 miles through the marathon, it's sort of ridiculous that I've never seen the sunny side of 4:40 on the track. As long as I try to run even splits and don't do anything stupid, I'm pretty confident I'll pull it off.

Splits: :66, :70, :69, :68, :68, :68

After work, I jogged an easy five in the rain. 

May 4

AM: 10 miles easy

PM: gym

A muddy and rainy run in Rock Creek Park in the morning. After work, I got back on the wagon with the gym, which I sorely need to do now that I'm not racing as much...the emphasis tomorrow will be on "sorely."

May 3 (87 miles/week)

PM: 11 miles easy/moderate

After catching an early flight back to DC, I ran a rainy out-and-back on the Capital Crescent. With about 4 miles to go, I dropped down to what I'd guess was low-6:00 pace, feeling good. I got in a good stretch afterward also.

This was generally a good week of training after a few crappy ones, so I'm feeling better about the summer ahead and perhaps, maybe a mile PR on Thursday night to end the spring on a high note.

May 2

AM: 5 miles easy, 3k hard (5k pace) plus 6 x 1' on/1' off; 12 miles

I caught a ride to Westminster to run a quick track workout, but there was either a track meet or a soccer game underway. Improvising, I ran a couple of loops at Westminster, jogged over to Memorial Park, and ran a hard lap (2.95k), shooting for 5k pace. Given that I was only in trainers and just kind of went for it, I was happy to hit 9:04 for the loop (4:56 pace). I ran another loop of one-minute pickups before I ran into my old high school assistant XC coach, Coach Justice. I jogged an easy lap with him and caught up a little bit on all things Westminster, and then I jogged back to my mom's house to finish up. All things considered, this was a good tune-up workout.

May 1

PM: 12 miles easy

I went back to Atlanta for my brother and my mom's birthdays this weekend. After working in the morning, I ran a longer loop through the Buckhead neighborhoods that I hadn't done in a couple of years. I admittedly got a little lost at one point.