Friday, April 25, 2008

Gimme dat medal!!!

That's all I want tomorrow.... I know, kinda stupid... but that is the main reason why I signed up for this race. Last year around this time, I did the May Classic 5k and finished in 22:59, which is still my PR for a 5k. I was elated with my time, but remembered thinking to myself after the race that I would like to take another 2 minutes off of my PR (personal record) by time I do this race again next year. Well, after a full year of training for marathons (not 5Ks!!) I feel as though that is an attainable goal for me... the only thing is that it is going to have to happen tomorrow, instead of next week, as I won't be doing the May Classic 5k this year. I will be running the 1 mile fun run with my daughter... so this Draft Day Dash race gives a finishers medal to the top 100 men that finish. Looking at last year's results, it seems as though to be in the top 100, you have to finish in the low 21's to achieve that... and ironically, that is what I would need to reach my goal of shaving off 2 minutes from my PR. Actually, I need a 20:59, and that is what I am going for. I need to average 6:45/mile to get that, and I have never come close to doing that in any of my hard training runs, so it seems quite daunting honestly. But so did doing 22:59 last year. So if all goes well tomorrow, I will get my medal and a PR improvment.
Since the intervals on Monday, I took off Tuesday and ran Wednesday am and Thursday pm.
Wednesday was a great run... I had no goals, or time to be out there. I just wanted to be out there. I enjoyed my run so much, I decided to make it longer than what I initially set out to do, and kinda got carried away, because I came back home a little late, and was pressed for time to get to work. But luckily, it all worked out and I got to the office with some time to spare before my 1st patient.
Map of Ivy Lake/Suncoast Easy Run

Last night was supposed to be a tempo run for me, but I didn't want to run so hard with the 5k being tomorrow, so I decided to run at a slower pace, but again, since I was already home, (and got the ok from wifey to go run) I decided to run a little longer than what I initially intended. That is the nice thing about when you aren't really training for anything in particular. You don't have to follow any program to a "T". If I want to run longer, I can... if not... I go home. But this week has just been one of those weeks where everything is just feeling good and you just realize how good running can feel on your body.
Here is my Ivy Lake/Suncoast Run from last night.

Let's see what happens tomorrow....