Thursday, July 24, 2008

Fatigue is setting in...

From this last November to April, I had been doing a pretty consistent, moderate to high milage schedule. A few weeks were about 30 miles, but most were in the 40s, 50s and even one or two in the 60s.

My body adapted. I didn't feel sore, achy, or even all that tired. I just did it, and it was good.

May and June kind ruined that for me, and now that I'm building miles again, it's getting tough. My muscles aren't all that pleased, and I'm feeling sore after runs that back in the day were pretty shrug worthy.

All part of the game, but still.... I would have thought that I'd have learned by now.

Monday, July 7, 2008

Hungry Duck Half- the return to duckland!

2nd annual Hungry Duck Run in Brighton, MI. It just so happened that I was able to come home on Thursday, run the race on Friday, and do a few more nostalgic type runs on Saturday and Sunday. Oh, and hang out with family. But that's not the focus of this blog, right? ;)

Anyway, it was a perfect day for a race- mid 50s, a little wind, crisp and beautiful. PR weather, as a good friend of mine called it. And it seemed to be exactly that... three of us who ran the half got PRs; I improved my half marathon time by 5 minutes, which was kind of nice.

I went out with the idea that I'd shoot for a 7:30-7:40 pace for the first half, and then cut it down to a 7:25-7:20 pace for the second half. They way it worked was I did the first half in ~49 minutes, and the second half in ~48. Meaning a 7:25/7:15 split, in rough terms. Wish is pretty good, when all is said and done. And quite pleasing, really.

It got my a 3rd AG award, which was nice. But it would've landed me in 7th if I were 35 rather than 34. So, as I've often stated in the past: "I'd better get faster before I get older"

Yay fun races!