Week 7 12/24-12/30

I went a lot lower on mileage this week only hitting 78, but it was a great week. I ran a good workout on Christmas and capped the week off with a solid 10 mile race. I averaged 5:30 pace for the race and my legs were a little dead during it, but I felt great running it. I’m ready to run 100 again next week then head back to school and get ready for Mizzou.

12/24 - My shins were sore on the morning run today, so I decided to play it safe and just do one run today, since I’ve got the whole week to make up the mileage if needed.  I ran through the trails in Riverwood Place and out through Truman Park.  After that I did some short add ons on the way back to get up to 6 miles in 40 minutes.  Hopefully, I feel better tomorrow for the workout.

Total 6 miles, 40 minutes

12/25 - CHRISTMAS.  I woke up late and decided to take the day off with visiting family and eating a ton, so I ate a big meal and had a couple sodas for the first time in a while, but got home at 8 and everyone at my house went to bed, so I decided I would try to do the workout if my stomach felt good.  I ran the warm up and felt fine, so I went ahead and did it.  It was an 8 mile tempo at 5:45 pace which isn’t too bad.  I ran the first half in 23:20, then I went away from known splits for a little while before ended up at my high school to finish off the last 2 miles.  I did the half mile loop around the building 3 times at exactly 5:45 pace, then made my way to the track to finish the run with a hard 400.  I was trying to see if I could make it sub 70 and ended up running 65.1 and was very pleased.  After the quarter I did a nice easy 15 minute run back home.  The last couple minutes of the cool down was the only time my shins hurt at all on the run.

Total 12 miles, 83 minutes

12/26 - In the morning I ran about 12 miles on my own at Castlewood.  It was nice to be on the flat Trails.  In the afternoon I was a little tired, but went 5 miles with Max.

Total 17 miles, 108 minutes

12/27 - I went for two fairly short runs today for 13 miles total.  The first was an 8 miler in the morning with Max and I did 5 on my own in the afternoon.  I felt pretty good on both of them, my legs were just a little bit heavy on the second run.  I also did 8×100 meter strides today.

Total 13 miles, 90 minutes

12/28 - I had to do a 10 mile run attacking the hills today.  It didn’t go near as well as any of the other runs this week, mainly because I ran a fairly flat route and didn’t have many hills to attack.  The few I did went pretty good, there just weren’t enough in the middle half of my run so I ended up doing a short sprint around every turn.  My ankle was also a little bit sore on the run.

Total 10 miles, 66 minutes

12/29 - Recovery Day

12/30 - I decided to go out to Forest Park to run the 10 mile in the Frostbite Series today.  Before the race I did about a 3 mile warm up with Max and then a few strides.  The race went way better than expected.  The first couple miles I just tried to keep in contact with the lead pack and not let anyone get away from us.  The third mile a couple people started to make moves so I had to pick it up some, but I stayed relaxed.  By mile 4 or 5 me and 3 other guys had separated ourselves from the field with 1 guy well out in front.  A little before mile 5 I started talking with Josh Mathis from Potosi and we ran and talked all the way up until the 9 mile mark when he left me.  I was surprised that we were able to hold 5:25 pace despite carrying on a conversation the whole time.  When I got done with the race my legs were a tired, but breathing wise I was perfectly fine.  I was real happy with the splits, because 9 of the 10 were my fastest miles in the past month.  They were 5:26, 5:30, 5:30, 5:23, 10:53 (2 mile, talking and missed the 5 mile mark), 5:18, 6:11, 5:25, 5:25 for a total of 55:05.  After the race I relaxed for a little while, then went for a 5 mile cool down with Max who was feeling bad today and dropped out half way through the race.{mosimage}  It was a very good day, and really boosted my confidence knowing I can run a 10 mile faster than any mile I ran prior to today in 4 weeks.

Total 18 miles, 110 minutes