Moving in the right direction

I had a good workout last night, I did 3x 1mile repeats with 1:30 second rest between. I hit 5:31, 5:36, 5:36 which was good. I felt like I was under control and I was able to control my breathing well. With the exception of my stride being off right now for some reason, my running is coming around. I just need to make sure I keep up with higher mileage. If I do that I should be on track for good races at Uwharrie, Umstead and hopefully mu next half in April. I plan on getting back on the bike this week probably tonight. I feel that even riding the bike 2 hours a week helps my overall fitness. Eventually I want to be on 7 hours a week but I will build up to that for now, I think I will stick to 2-3 1 hour rides a week while I focus on my running for a little while. Other than that not much going on. We are looking forward to the end of this week when Angela officially becomes a stay at home mom. I also think I may have found the key to Brayden paying me more attention. We were out socializing in the neighborhood a few nights ago and I was playing with one of the kids. Brayden got so jealous, that I had to pick him up and run around with him while we were playing. He was laughing and smiling and having a ball and I got my "Daddy time" in with the mommy's boy, which is awesome!

Blah Week

Didn't really do much this week except try to get back into the training groove. I managed to have a decent week. I got a good interval session in on Wednesday, did 4x1200 (4:11, 4:10, 4:10, 4:06) and felt pretty strong. I tried to follow that up with a tempo run on Thursday. I wanted to do 4 miles in 24:40ish but ran out of energy and got there in 25:30. It happens. I had good runs on Friday and Saturday and an easy 10 miler today with Marty at Umstead. I like that route, being that I never run on the Cary side of Umstead. I have decided that I will "race" Cedar Rock this weekend. I say "race" because my endurance had taken a hit with all my recovery from B2B and the rest period leading up to it. But I will make sure that I get my form back by the time Uwharrie and Umstead roll around in Feb and March. We had a good thanksgiving, except my sister couldn't make it :( She is recovering from surgery and I wish her well. Next on the agenda is the long awaited trip back home. Haven't been back to LA since 2001, I am very much looking forward to seeing my Gautreau side of the family again. And I might just make a trip to Harrah's while I am down there :)

Bad Race

I knew when I signed up for the Raven Rock Rumble 10 miler that it would be a difficult race. First it is a very difficult bad footed hilly single track trail that just doesn't lend itself to fast times. Second it was only 2 weeks after B2B and I would take that entire two weeks as down time. So I showed up in plenty of time to get warmed up and get some time in on the trails. When the race started I hung back and settled into a good pace. Soon it was a 2 man breakway, I held back and let him go the pacing. At mile 2 he fell off the pace a bit so I continued ahead and made sure to stay comfortable and not puch the pace until the backside. Once I hit the 4 mile turn around and headed up the long hill I had about 15 second lead and pushed the hill a bit. By the time we entered the backside at 5 miles I had about 45 second lead. I went into the first hill and tried to push it but my legs were not there. I decided just to stay comfortable and try to hang on through 9 miles and if I was still in the lead try to push the last uphill mile to the win. All was going well until we hit mile 7. I was getting tired and I guess I didn't lift my feet and tripped on a root and fell down a hill for about 5-10 yards. When I hit I scraped my knee and my leg cramped up so I couldn't get up. I had to sit there for 30 seconds and so I lost my lead as 2 guys went by me before I could get up. At this point I just didn't have the energy to go with them. I knew my race was shot so I mentally checked out. For some reason I lost all motivation and soon found myself walking up the last hill because I was too dejected to keep running. After what seemed like an eternity I finally got to the finish line in 5th place. Not a great effort or a great day and I need to focus on my running, my endurance and more importantly my mental strength in the off season. Then I went home watched FSU beat Maryland so at least something positive happened.

Long Weekend, I guess

I woke up Saturday morning early and got my stuff together for the trail race. I wanted to get out there a little early so I can have time to get a proper warm up and stretch in. I showed up at the park at 7:30 and the gates were locked but there were cars waiting. I thought to myself, that maybe they were just running a bit behind. But as people started getting out of their cars they were all dressed in hiking gear. Hmmm... not a single runner, something is odd. So I google the race on my phone only to find out the race was NEXT WEEKEND!! Oh well I was here I might as well run, so I got a good 7 miler in and called it a day. I had to miss going to the FSU game because I was on the hook for a birthday party. So we came home and I wacthed it on TV and listened to the announcers remind me that it was a BEAUTIFUL 70 degree sunny day in Winston Salem. Thanks for that dude.
Sunday, I wacthed the boys in the AM while Angela ran then we headed out to see Andrew's new baby. He was very cute and although fussy when we first got there he slept the rest of the time. Congrats to Andrew and Stacie! Then I headed out to Old Reliable Run for some temp work. My plan was to cruise through the first mile at 6:10-6:15 and hold steady through 5 miles and then stretch my legs a bit. Well I blew that by going out at 5:44, so I decided to just turn it into a training run. I went through 4 miles per my watch at 24:49 and so I just shut it down from there. My 6th mile was intentionally slow for fear I would do what I didn't want to do and that is turn it into a race and try to run down people. I pulled off the course at 6 miles or just shy of it and talked to Marty And Bri for a bit. Then I headed back to pick up the fam and head home. I did take something good away from the day which is my legs are still tired from B2B so I will take another week of active recovery and get ready to ramp up in my build up to the Umstead Marathon and my next half in April.