Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Weekly Log 23-Sep to 29-Sep-2013

A new season launches a new blog header with a new quiz to see who can identify the race in each of the three photos from Fall 2012.  I've put away my swim gear for the year, cleaned the bike and put that away, and have accepted that summer is over.  Looking forward to some fun fall road races and trail runs.

Monday:  day off

Tuesday:
3 mile evening slog in the dark after Matthew's 1st X-C meet.  Meet vs Jamestown and Exeter-West Greenwich (EWG).  Matthew took it out smart, as the first time he passed us he was about in 7th place (of 52).  Yelled for him to get higher in the pack before entering the woods, and by the far end of the field saw him in 3rd place behind two EWG runners.  After the next loop, he was in 1st with a runner about 100 yards behind him.  At end of second loop and finish, there weren't nobody in sight in behind him.  Next runner finished 51 seconds after him!  Great 1st meet; much tougher competition awaits Friday at statewide Ocean State Invitational.

Wednesday:
14 miles:  3 warm-up, 9 at sub-MP (kept to a tight band of 6:18 - 6:24 pace), and 2 cool-down.  Final prep before Smuttynose.  Taking it easier from here to marathon day in 11 days.

Thursday:
9 miles.  Ninigret Park speedwork session with FiveK.  I think this will be evolving into Workout Wednesday going forward; had to adjust the day this week.  After a warm-up, workouts on grass:

  • 3 x 1,000 meters (actually 965 on GPS):  3:23, 3:18, 3:25
  • 3 x 500 meters (515 on GPS):  1:40, 1:40, 1:40 (probably could never get that consistency again)
  • 3 x 200 meters


Friday:
5 miles solo on Barn Island trails.  I love the trails out here.  Wished I had had more time before the onslaught of meetings.  Will be spending more time here in the fall and winter for sure.

Saturday:
8 miles.  Carter Preserve, Charlestown.  In what I hope will be a return to fall/winter Saturday morning group runs, we had six of us out here this morning!  Mike B, Muddy, Jonny, "Action" Acton, newest WTAC member Nate, and me.  45 degrees at start, but I felt quite warm the whole time except for in the Grassland, where it's notoriously cold.  Pushed it hard for a Grassland Mile CCW segment that Jonny created; 1 mile at 5:21.  Happy that I was able to keep up with Jonny (he must have been taking it easy on me!), and Muddy was out ahead of us all.
Good fun.  Discussion on next run (2 weeks out?) of Grills Preserve, and rotating choices thereafter.

Sunday:
5 miles.  Running with the Lions 5K, Misquamicut.  17:57, 5:47 pace.  2nd overall.  Full results here.

Made a last minute decision with Matthew to run this race a mile from my house.  Texted local runner FiveK, and he and his friend Shara joined us.  Sign up registration process was less than the usual well oiled machine we see at larger races, but with very small field (42), there were no issues.  The Lions, like many other small races, really need to work on their marketing if the race is to survive and grow.

First mile was into the wind and when I got my first split of 5:50 (near Westerly Town Beach), I knew today was not a PR possibility.  Turn around on Atlantic Ave and a bit of tailwind helped me get negative split on the race overall, as mile 2 was 5:56, and mile 3 was 5:39.  Really nice food spread and sitting outdoors on the beach on comfy chairs on a beautiful Indian summer day didn't hurt either.
Top 4 finishers of today's race!

Weekly run mileage:  40

Week recap:
Plenty of highlights this week, including return to group trail runs, a good speedwork session, and vicariously watching Matthew run his X-C races.  Taper week next week going into Smuttynose, and then looking forward to a lot of fall fun.

3 comments:

  1. left is Lil Rhody? No idea on the others

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  2. Left is Old Mountain Field 5K (SC4S). Middle is "that one in Avondale" and right is "that one that you did that one time in CT".

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  3. I'd say left OMF (definitely not Big River, too many flags, ha!), middle Avondale, and the right no clue, wonder how long it would take to figure it out from the bib number... nah, don't have that much spare time.

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