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October 29, 2005
thank you, uncle dr universe!
Beautiful, beautiful weather down here the past 5 days. After the hurricane blew through and screwed up a lot of peoples' lives down in south Florida, we here in central FL were treated to a lovely taste of fall - 60s and 70s during the day, 50s (and even upper 40s) at night and at running-time (early morning). This is why I live here. It will be like this pretty much until March.
Between last week's paltry mileage and this week's lovely weather, I've been running way too fast during normal training runs this week. My pace has averaged 45 - 60s faster than usual, and it's either because running faster feels great or because it doesn't feel like I'm running faster at all. I'm sure that as I run more miles my pace will moderate a bit.
Today I ran a 5K that was pretty interesting. I saw a woman from my running club who's always been faster, so I decided to try to keep her back in sight. Unfortunately the race had a narrow crowded start, and this woman has a patient, come-from-behind style (and I have a stupid, go-out-too-fast style), so I ended up in front of her. During the first mile our shadows were in front of us, and just past the mile marker I saw the silhouette of her ponytail on the ground in front of me. She ran behind me for a bit, then moved up to pass. I said "good job, Amy," then immediately wondered why couldn't I try to hang with her. So I did. From that point until about 2.8 miles, we dueled: I pulled ahead; she went with me; she dropped back a bit, then came up again, and then we repeated the whole thing. I could tell we were both working hard. Near the end of the last mile was a grade so slight it didn't feel like downhill going out, but it sure felt like uphill coming back. I'm ok at going up, so I pushed a bit thinking if Amy were tired enough she wouldn't follow. I put some space between us but she ground it out and caught me after the grade flattened out. As she passed, I said "you got it" and tried just to hang on the last bit. She beat me by 4 or 5 seconds, and we were 2nd and 3rd overall.
My time (19:41) was a PR and made me fairly happy, but the cool thing was that this was the first time I'd ever raced a person. My races usually turn into time trials; I can't count the number of races I've finished with no one in sight and nothing but the finish line in front of me. The dueling was hard mentally, but I think we both made each other work. I'm sort of pissed at myself that I couldn't last until the end. I want to get better at this.
Posted by joe positive at October 29, 2005 5:25 PM
Comments
Congrats on the PR! Weather can make a huge difference not just physically but mentally. I have that same stupid start out to fast tactic and I'm trying to stop it!
Posted by: Dawn at October 29, 2005 6:56 PM
Great race and congrats on the PR! Racing someone else is challenging, but of course always pulls us to our best times. Hope you continue to enjoy your great weather!
Posted by: Beth at October 29, 2005 8:35 PM