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Despite my running for health and lifestyle reasons, I am still a competitor above all else. Race time comes and I want to do my very best. At the very least blow the doors off everyone in my age group. So to give you an idea how I think, in order to beat the population at large I should at least be the best in my own neighborhood.
I entered the Strive for 5k which was renamed to the Super Strive for 5. The twist being it had a super hero theme. Great for the kids, meh for me since I was more into sports than super heroes as a kid. Sign up was clunky at best. Instead of signmeup or active.com you needed to sign up through the park district website. Then you get an email from the RD who emails you a consent form to complete. Awkward. Anyways, I've run this race before and got second and thrid in separate years. The only goal this year was to win the AG. I had just PR'd two weeks earlier and thought I could do it again AND break 21 minutes.
This is not a chip timed race but an old fashioned chute finish. I lined up at the line and took my best shot. I ran even splits but failed to record my mile splits. I ran pretty much on my own and was only surrounded by a few runners. I hit the finish and found myself with a new PR by a slim 1.5 seconds at 21:06.5. The quest for sub 21 continues. However, I succeeded in a neighborhood AG win. I'm not sure where I go to conquer after the neighborhood. Frankly, I'm not fast enough to crush anything else really.
If you always do what you've always done, you'll never qualify for Boston. So I am taking that advice to heart and upping my game using Pfitz 18/70 plan. My only fear really is injury. However, in week 15 of the plan I managed to get sick. A one day fever which reached 101F and subsequent head cold put me on the shelf for a few days. I skipped three days of running including a long run. So to avoid upping the mileage too quickly, I treated it as a cutback week. When I resumed running after four days, I simply repeated week 15. This works on more than one level. The actual Pfitz cutback week of 55 miles will be during my vacation week since I delayed it. I love it when a plan comes together.
On the higher miles, which means getting up really early before work. Like 5AM early. This is that part of sacrifice you hear athletes ramble on about. I hit 58 miles last week and the build-up continues. This week I aim for 62. I fully intend to do my long run on a softer surface. Today's run of 13 rainy miles was at a leisurely 8:57 pace.
Finally, the 4th of July holiday is here. Tomorrow, I will run the Elmhurst 4 on the 4th for my club. Yes, I aim to PR in my sixth year running this CARA circuit race. Speed work in disguise. I am really hoping to go under 28 minutes for the four miles since it will not be hot this year as it has been every other year.
Have a terrific holiday and if you are out of the US have a terrific Thursday.
