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November 22, 2005

Back to the Drawing Board

I have taken two weeks totally off from running and then have spent three weeks slowly building up my mileage and my speed workouts. I have done about 6 workouts on the track in the last three weeks which is a huge improvement for me and I have slowly begun to integrate some weight work into my routine. Over the next five weeks I plan to stick to a specific training plan to build up my speed and strength. I want to start the New Year off fit and ready for some serious distance training in 2006.

Last Saturday I did two 5k races in one day. I did one race to help pace a friend in a 5k. She wanted to break her pr of 21:30 and she ran 21:17. I ran with her until the last 200 meters and she dashed off. I finished in 21:23. The pace felt good, not fast as if I was all out racing but not totally comfortable and conversational. I had to concentrate to continuosly hit sub 7 minutes. We went through two miles in 13:40 so I was happy about that. An hour after this race I did another 5k race to add some distance to my day. I saw one of my students at the race and decided to pace the student. I ran a 22:01 in this race and my quad felt really tight. I was frustrated because there were several times when I wanted to sprint ahead but my leg prevented me from doing so. Since the races on Saturday I have taken it relatively easy.

Sunday: 2 miles with the dogs at the golf course and 6 miles with Sarah and Jen. Quad was very tired.
Monday: 5 miles with Sarah easy at the gold course, hamstrings were very tight all day long.

Today it is pouring out and it is expected to all turn into snow by late this afternoon. I really want to run in snow. I hope by the time I get to run it is snowing. I plan to run for an hour today at an easy pace and hopefully do some rowing a little later.

On Thursday I plan to try to race a 5k in Burlington. I'll be really happy if I can break 21 minutes but I know my quad will have to feel really rested. We'll see. I need to be focused and tough the entire race. I have a workout schedule planned for the entire month of December so I am excited to be back on track and training again.

On Saturday I'll do my first long run in awhile and run for an hour and forty five minutes. I may do that Friday after the race, I haven't decided yet.

Posted by mary at 1:28 PM | Comments (3)