Sunday, January 15, 2012

Sunday, January 15th, 2012

7 miles @ 6:31 pace.
Really had no intention of going too quick, as running 9 with some faster miles and then working last night definitely had me thinking of slow and easy recovery.
Fast forward to today and it's 18 degrees with a little wind and I'm wearing an old pair of DS Racers, since the Newtons were making my calves bark a bit.
I head out of the driveway and see some lanky youngster go by at an OK pace and I'm wondering who the heck that is, since no one's out on this cold-ass day and the only guy (Tom Deeg) who runs quick around here besides me, already ran 20 earlier in the day.
I'm starting out slow, so he gets @ 50 feet ahead in no time and by a 1/2 mile, he's 400 yards ahead. I realize that I feel pretty good, so I pick it up and just after the mile, I catch up to him and realize we're humming along at 6:30 pace. I introduce myself and come to find out he's a tri-guy who's best area is running and he's going to UVM. His folks have a place on the Cape and he's done a bunch of Cape races as a result. Really nice kid and I enjoyed running quick with him for 4 miles.
Did 2 more and felt good.
Wrapped up a good week and am pleasantly surprised at how things feel. 6 weeks until Amherst and I still haven't gotten to a point where I feel I can string together any speedwork or fast miles without hurting myself, so I have to be honest with myself that I still don't know if racing is a possibility, but if can keep up the 40+ miles next week and go for an hour and 15 at some point, that will be another step int he right direction. I know that if my aerobic strength is such that I can run 6:30's with relative ease for 5-7, I've got the ability to run 5:30's if pressed. The question is if I can push the muscles to do that and live to tell, which is something I won't be able to test for at least 2 more weeks.
For whatever it's worth (and to me, it's worth a lot) this has been my biggest week in 4 months and the first week in that span that I'd run 6 days. Good stuff. Now I just have to be smart.

M- 6.4
T- 6.5
W- 6.6
Th- 6.4
F- 0
Sa- 9.4
Su- 7

week- 42 miles

No comments: