A week after running 13.1 miles at 5:17 pace, I am feeling quite good. This week I ran the lowest mileage week of the year so far(50 miles), and I took 2 days off this week, and no workouts. On Sunday, I ran 11 miles, picking up the pace later in the run and seemed to wake up and finish at a faster pace, while making sure to maintain good form. I have no clue what pace I was running, just running by feel mostly. As I look at my schedule, I am getting more and more excited as the year goes by. I feel like I am just starting to scratch the surface of some big races this year and (hopefully) next week. I also am already getting excited about Pikes Peek 10K, an outdoor track 5K(I no doubt am due to run 14:xx for the 5000), and finally, the USA Half Marathon Championships in Duluth, MN...which could be a better race than I thought. Another thing I am excited about is making a new racing shoe its debut(The Mizuno Wave Universe 4), which I will race in Cherry Blossom next Sunday. The shoe is a high end racing shoe that is unbelievably light, I did 5x mile in this shoe a few weeks ago, and it felt great. I decided not to use it for the half marathon though. I think the Brooks T7 is my favorite right now for the half marathon, and I will probably make it my marathoning shoe as well this fall. I see the Mizuno Wave Universe as a great shoe for 50 minutes or less of racing. Ideally that is at the edge of 10 miles for me on down to the 10k. I know I am getting a bit absurdly technical here, but remember I also sell shoes.
On to other topics...
This week, from a coaching perspective, went extremely well. Last weekend, many runners who Becca(whom I work with) and I coach ran the National Half/Full Marathon and everyone did quite well-Christina-for one who was injured last fall and unable to attempt her first marathon, through sheer determination this winter trained her butt off and completed her first marathon in the DC race running a 4:09. Tracy, who qualified for the Boston Marathon last fall with a 3:48, PRed in 1:46 for the half marathon. Maria, who ran the same Shamrock Half that I did last weekend, bested her PR by 4 minutes, finishing in 1:48. After my race, I jogged back to mile 12 and found her in the last mile and ran with her before she took off at sub 8:00 pace-that hurt my legs for sure! What's really awesome is that she has a lot of room to improve and will surprise herself in more upcoming races. She also completed her first marathon last fall. Pat Savoy, a huge fan of my brother's band "Yellow Dubmarine," is back running more again, and has a lot of potential(he ran 4:37 for the mile as a prep). Brandon Hirsch, who I begun coaching a few months ago, is looking great for his main goal race, Pikes Peek 10K. He raced a 5k today in his own words "a 21st century PR" in 18:02...at age 41. Brandon has been focusing on shorter races this spring(10k on down) and it's been great seeing significant results already. He also has a lot of good racing in him for future longer distance races of 10 miles to the half marathon distance, as well as the marathon distance.
I encourage many runners to vary up the distances they are training for throughout a year. The variation can be the choice-as long as there is one. It could be anything between 10k and 13.1, or it could be as wide a range as 5k-marathon, such as what I do. One of the reasons for this is that it keeps running interesting. Another more important reason is it helps us become better runners-it develops every system we need to work on.
Thanks for the shout out coach. :)
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