PR? Yes.

The I-Drive U Run 5K: No scenery. Next to a huge convention center hotel (Gaylord Palms). Out and back course along one side of a divided four lane blacktop. 80 degree temperatures. Humid. Middle of nowhere that was a cow pasture about 6 years ago.

Warm up: I jogged out a half mile along the course and came back, throwing a few pick up strides towards the end. Loose and ready.

Race: Started near the front and had no traffic to work around. That's my biggest peeve. A number of folks passed me but I was doing fine. It took me nearly a mile to regulate my breathing to a level that seemed familiar from training. I wasn't quite sure which running pace I was going but at the first mile the timer shouted out 7:24. WHAT?!?
The guy next to me says, "His timing is sure off." I glanced at my watch and said, "You're right." He was fast, but not by much.
Mile 2 was fluid and I felt strong. At the two mile mark I knew a PR was coming but I was concerned about bonking down the pace. I plugged along, passing people, then saw the finish line.

23.26.1 on my watch.

PR. No small PR. No. We're talking 51 seconds off my PR of May. The May PR was 25 seconds better than the previous PR in early 2004. Something has happened that amazes me. I have reached a new plateau of performance. I have never felt so good and run so fast.
I will emphasize and pay homage to this fact: Fast = more miles + interval speed work.

Recap. 51 seconds faster. 7:33 mile pace. I only dreamed of going sub 8:00 when I started racing in 2001. Regrets: I saw a few other serious runners from my Sunday morning long run gang. After the race as I was getting ready to leave I saw them coming back from some long warm down runs which I skipped. My Labor Day race plan asked for me to race a 10K today. I settled for the only race in town 5K. Tomorrow is supposed to be eight miles. I'll go 10 or 11 instead to make up.
I was also not so happy with positive splits, 7:24, 7:33 and 7:43, but they were better than my last PR splits across the board. I'll do better next time.

Race Saturday

I'm racing Saturday morning. Fast flat straight out and back course - in the heat. Could be PR material. We'll see. My body feels great but I'm about 5 hours short of sleep this week. Time to rack it and prepare for the morning.
Have a good weekend friends.

Now that felt Good!

I went downtown for the 7 a.m. runners club run. Chris and Tim were there. Old Jack was up north on vacation. We left the Avenue ahead of a bunch of other runners who eventually passed us (seriously good runners) and maintained an easy 9:50 mile pace. Tim turned off at mile 5 and Chris and I picked it up the rest of the way. I enjoyed pushing hard up the inclines. Chris turned off at the 10th mile to run home (giving him 16 for the day). I circled downtown and finished at city hall with 11 miles logged at a 9:36 pace. That'll never catch Dianna in New Haven but I still have a few weeks to train and she is under the weather; both factors to motivate me (although Dianna will be well recovered soon enough to be in top form by Labor Day).
When I got home I had a hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs with french bread. Seeing blue skies and having nothing pressing to do I announced I was going to the beach which I did by myself. Canaveral National Seashore was open today but closing at 6 p.m. because the shuttle returns tomorrow and may need the runway that sits just south of the beach area. RESTRICTED AREA. DO NOT ENTER.
The beach was fairly crowded and for good reason. The ocean was very calm with good surf and azure blue color. The sun was warm and a nice breeze made it quite pleasant. I sat in my chair facing the rays and, after the long run this morning, I dozed off intermittently. I swam. I walked. I ate a lot, drank tons of water and read the newspaper and Runners' World. The weather cooperated and the one hour I thought I would spend there turned into four. The clouds never came. The rain stayed inland. I was as happy as a clam at high tide.
Ain't that special?

Legal to Run in New Haven

Moments ago I submitted my ChampionChip number and clicked Yes. I am now a bona fide entrant in the New Haven 20K September 5. Yahooooo.
For the first time ever I'm trying to follow a plan of training for a specific race. Mind you, I picked up the training in Week 5 of the plan but I didn't see much in the early weeks I couldn't handle or hadn't been doing. Well, I hadn't been doing much interval training and absolutely no strides. I feel like I'm on the high school cross country team, just a meadow's length behind those young whipper snappers.
Wednesday was a rest or 3-4 mile day after Tuesday intervals. My training pattern has been to run every other day so I bagged that and did 3 easy miles. And I was slow.
Thursday asked for four easy miles with intervals of half marathon pace. I screwed that up by going the whole distance at 10K pace. I was dogged; but not so much that I suffered any during the day. Too little/interrupted sleep was more the casue of my demise than the workouts but, then again, they work together to compound the sluggishness.
So Thursday night I got in bed at 900 and slept for 8.5. Friday was a rest day and I did. Before Saturday dawned I was up and ready to run. I opted out of the Chuluota trail run with the H.S. cross country team because I only needed to log five miles. They were going 8-10. Plus it's a half hour drive out to the woods and I needed more time since I had another Saturday school business day to deal with at 930.
The five miles went well. They blew by and I was going at 10K pace again. I'm loading up on water (and one, maybe two beers) before tomorrow's scheduled 11 miles. I will be there on Park Avenue at 0700 ready to go.
Two days until school opens [Booooo]. Four weeks until I am back on the beach in Rhode Island [yeaaaa]. 30 days until the 20K [look out Dianna; I'm gunning to break your PR].

New Haven 20K

Susan made me do it. I couldn't stand to wait until next summer to go back to Rhode Island. Then Southwest sent me an email that made it impossible not to go back - $49 each way! So I booked flights and called my buds in New England. Susan reminded me the RBF NE gang is running in New Haven on Labor Day. Let me just say: I AM IN! Well I haven't signed up yet but I am in training.
Today I went over to the track. Prescribed session: 2x1600 at 10K pace and 6x200 at 5K pace. Based on my race history I targeted 8:30 on the 1600s and 1:00 on the 200s. Well if I could just learn my paces for 10K and 5K I might be able to do that but nooooo ... I had to show off to the marathon trainees working out there this morning (some were targeting the Richmond Marathon).
So I burned the 1600s in 7:57 and 8:02 and my six 200s went down at an average :51. And I felt great. No significant loss of speed or endurance on any repeats. Maybe I need to reset my target time for the 20K in New Haven. Wait ... they have hills in Connecticut.
Any chance Jon will break off from the Michigan summer and get home for the race? What are his chances lately?