The Battle in the Heat

July 18, 2015

Last Saturday, I went head to head with a very good Ethiopian runner named Abu Kebede.  I didn't really know how good he was until after the race when I looked up his race performances.  The performance that caught my eye was his 1:05 half marathon this past spring, 2 minutes better than my personal best for that distance, and the level I am so hardly working towards getting to.  The Twilighter 8K is a tough course, and the heat and humidity that night would surely put my fitness to the test.  Conditions for racing were downright as tough as they could get.  I knew that if someone were to beat me in this race, they would have to be very fit.  July 13-19 was the last week of the sharpening stuff my coach has had me work on.  On Monday, I did 2 miles of 50m alternating sprint/floats again in 9:43, which was my fastest time doing that exercise-I'm happy with how much I've improved that.  On Tuesday, I did a mile in 4:29, and that was the end of the sharpening phase.  There was just this race, and then we would do 2 weeks of endurance, before marathon specific training begins in August.

We blasted off into the darkness, where the heat and hills waited.  I was looking for guys around me, but I found myself alone....except for one.  Kebede came up on my left shoulder and took the lead, with me drafting.  I guess the others felt we were going suicide pace....which in this heat, was.  I drafted off Kebede, staying right on him.  I could tell he was surprised I was there, and we hammered up the hills on the first 2 miles of the course.  I wasn't really concerned about our splits or pace, the conditions were so bad.  I wanted to win.

We made our way towards the turn at Washington Street where many cheered.  I had started to lead the race at this point, with Kebede drafting.  We turned a hard left towards the second part of the course.  It would be tough to do, but I felt I had a good shot to beat this guy.  I decided to hammer the second part of the course and try to lose him a bit.  I surged at times, especially uphills....problem was he was the same build as me, and was just as good on hills, so he was able to match every move I made.  We were both very evenly matched.  We passed mile 3.

STAY WITH IT CHRIS! I heard my friend John cheer.  Mile 4 was a hard push, I was still trying to gain distance on Kebede.  I felt I almost broke him during that mile.  We made a right turn onto 355 and the last mile was an all out brawl.  We ran side by side waiting to see who would go first.  By now I was laboring a bit and the humidity and heat was tough.  There was no one behind us for quite a ways.  One of us would win.  Focus.  I thought how this guy must be hurting just as bad as I was by now.  I then thought, damn, what was I... 64th in this race in 2008?  Indeed, I was.  It's great when you look back to getting your ass kicked....and now in contention for the win.

The last 1/2 mile Kebede made a move.  He surged ahead and I tried to draft on him.  I heard runners from the opposite side cheer GO CHRIS!!!  Then George Buckheit yelled to get the fire going.  Time to dig.  HE'S HURTING CHRIS! YOU CAN BEAT HIM!!  I surged, and to Kebede's surprise, I went ahead of him.  I think he then realized I was not going down easily, and I felt him getting ready for his next surge.  200 meters to go.  I could see the line in sight.  Just get to the line, dammit.  Kebede then surged past me again, but this time I fought him, and perhaps, mistakenly, went too soon.  I went ahead of him with less than 100 meters remaining....I still had the lead with 50 or 60 meters to go but he was able to muster one last surge and I went hard again but could not go into a full sprint anymore.  We both ran as hard as we could through the line and he beat me by a second or two.  It was a hard fought effort and I think it humbled both of us.  We both hit the pavement in exhaustion, and as I finally got myself up I went over to him, seeing him lying on the ground too made me realize that, damn I really made him work for it.  I helped him up and congratulated him.  I think he and I had a mutual respect for each other-we were evenly matched and the difference between us was in the surges we had, and that we were both truly longer distance runners.  The conditions were downright brutal, and we had beaten each other to a pulp.

  
The night of the race I couldn't fall asleep for a while, tossing and turning and replaying the last 50 meters in my head over, and over.  The next morning I ran 20 miles in 2:07, at a pretty good 6:20 clip, in quite brutal humidity.  It seems like my easy pace for long runs has become low 6's.  84 miles for that week.

2 weeks of Endurance

Now I am doing endurance through next week.  The goal is to get in the volume(my coach wants me at least 108 for these 2 weeks) and transition out of the sharpening into marathoning.  The great thing here is that I am really fit going into the cycle, and I don't think it will take very long before I get into very ideal marathon shape.  We are done with the short races now, and there will be one tune-up half marathon at the VA Beach Rock N Roll 13.1 on Sept 6.  Then the Chicago Marathon on October 11.

This week July 20-26: 110 miles

M- AM: 9 miles with Jerry/ PM: 3 miles
T-  AM: 15 miles with Brian/PM: 3 miles
W- AM: 5 miles/PM: Hill Repeats/9 miles
Th- AM: 18 miles(14 with Brian)/PM: 4 miles
F- 8 x 200m strides with 200m jog, 9 miles
S- AM: 12 miles @ Beach Drive, hilly: 1:09(5:45 pace)/PM: 3 miles
S- 20 miles: 2:16

Total: 110 miles

Pushing the Pace

June and July have been very hard working months, in terms of intensity.  My coach has me pushing the pace to get sharp enough before we transition to marathon specific training.  It's been great.  I've never felt more efficient.  The speed work is broken up during the week.  Instead of having just one gigantic killer workout, having multiple smaller workouts while keeping the mileage relatively high I believe has enabled me to recover better.  You can see the training below the past several weeks, and how it has built up from previous weeks in May and April.  I've been able to handle this training because of the endurance segment I did over the winter(see my February post http://chrissloanestraininglog.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-endurance-segment.html).  I'm starting to see how things are connecting here, and building off each other.  The idea is that now the faster stuff is becoming more natural to me, and much of the paces I've been doing have been between 4:20's-4:40's.  These workouts have made 5:00 pace seem "easier."  My weakness has always been running shorter at faster speeds.  Yes I can run an all out 4:21 mile on the roads, but my real strength is being able to run just slightly slower for a much longer period of time.  The training is geared towards running just a little bit slower than that all out mile I ran, and getting comfortable with it.  My coach has also been having me work on pace changes, which has made the harder pace actually seem easier.

On June 13, I battled Chris Kwiatkowski at the Lawyers Have Heart 10K in very tough heat and humidity.  Despite Chris pulling away the last mile to beat me by 24 seconds, I was pleased I was able to stay on him for most of the race.  Chris is a 1:04 half marathoner and arguably DC's top runner.

  

On this past July 4th, I won the hilly Autism Speaks 5K in Potomac.  After messing around with a 4:45 first mile with a young college kid, I went ahead and hammered the rest of the course to finish in 15:24, which for that course I was happy with the time.  The second half of the course is the hardest and most hilly.  My coach also came to the race which was nice.  I did some research to see if my time was close to the course record, and I found Ethiopian Gurmessa Megressa ran 15:18 in 2009.  So close.    

Below is my training the last several weeks:

June 1 - June 7:

Mon- AM: 3200m of 50m on/off: 10:15, 5 miles total/PM: 7 miles  

Tues- 1200m: 3:34, 1600m: 4:46, 2000m: 5:59, 9 miles total

Wed- AM: 16 miles/PM: 3 miles

Thurs- 9 miles w/ 5 mile pickup

Fri- AM: 5 miles/PM: strides + 5 miles

Sat- 4 x 1200m w/ pace accelerations:

Interval 1: 600m: 1:54, 600m: 1:41, 

Interval 2: 600m: 1:55, 600m: 1:41

Interval 3: 600m: 1:52, 600m: 1:41, 

Interval 4: 600m: 1:52, 600m: 1:40

7 miles total/PM: 8.5 miles

Sun- 20 miles

Total: 95 miles

June 8 - June 14:

Mon- AM: 5 miles/PM: 3200m of 50m on/off: 9:50, 7 miles total

Tues- 1600m: 4:33, 6 miles total

Wed- 11 miles

Thurs- 7 miles + strides

Fri- AM: 4 miles/PM: 3 miles

Sat- Lawyers Have Heart 10K, 2nd place

Sun- AM: 14 miles/ PM: 6 miles

Total: 75 miles

On June 17-27, I went to Florida with Beth's family for vacation.  I also got acclimated to training in the heat.  I got very, very used to the heat there.

June 15 - June 21:

Mon- AM: 5 miles/PM: 7 miles

Tues- AM: 10 miles/PM: 3.5 miles

Wed- AM: 2 x 2400m: 7:12, 7:15, 8.5 miles total
PM: 5.5 miles
Thurs- AM: 14 miles/PM: 5 miles
Fri- AM: 7.5 miles/PM: 5.5 miles + strides

Sat- AM: 2 x 2400m: 7:10, 7:14/PM: 7 miles

Sun: 20 miles

Total: 106 miles

June 22 - June 28:

Mon- AM: 3200m of 50m on/off: 10:12, 6 miles total

PM: 5 miles

Tues- AM: 4 x 1200m w/ pace accelerations:

Interval 1: 600m: 1:52, 600m: 1:42, 

Interval 2: 600m: 1:49, 600m: 1:41

Interval 3: 600m: 1:51, 600m: 1:41, 

Interval 4: 600m: 1:52, 600m: 1:41

6.5 miles total/PM: 4 miles

Wed- AM: 15 miles/PM: 5 miles

Thurs- AM: 3 mile tempo: 15:03, 6 miles total/PM: 5 miles

Fri- AM: 8 miles/PM: 5 miles + strides

Sat- AM: 2 x 1600m: 4:40, 4:42, 2 x 800m: 2:21, 2:21, 6 miles total

PM: 4 miles

Sun- 20 miles, 2:05:00, 6:15 pace

Total: 96 miles

June 29 - July 5:

Mon- AM: 3200m of 50m on/off: 10:05, 5.5 miles total

PM: 7 miles

Tues- AM: 1600m: 4:31, 4.5 miles total/PM: 4 miles

Wed- AM: 6 miles/PM: 8 miles

Thurs- AM: 6 miles/PM: 3.5 miles + strides

Fri- 4.5 miles

Sat- Autism Speaks 5K, 1st place, 15:24

Sun- 20 miles

Total: 80 miles

July 6 - July 12:

Mon- AM: 5.5 miles/PM: 4 miles

Tues- AM: 12 miles/PM: 5 miles

Wed- AM: 4 x 1200m w/ pace accelerations:

Interval 1: 600m: 1:49, 600m: 1:40, 

Interval 2: 600m: 1:49, 600m: 1:40,

Interval 3: 600m: 1:49, 600m: 1:40, 

Interval 4: 600m: 1:51, 600m: 1:41

7.5 miles total/PM: 7.5 miles

Thurs- AM: 8 miles/PM: 6 miles

Fri- AM: 12 miles/PM: 5.5 miles + strides

Sat- 3 x 1600m: 4:40, 4:40, 4:39, 10 miles total 

Sun- 20 miles

Total: 104 miles

Saturday was one of the best workouts I've ever had in terms of quality.  You can see the improvements here week to week.  It's great when you're doing a 2 mile on the track with 50m on and 50m off and still run a 9:50....a time I would race all out when I was in high school.  Sunday(tomorrow) will be 20 miles, and my mileage this week will be around +/- 105.  My last race of the summer will be the Rockville Twilighter on July 18.  I'm really excited for this race.  The last time I ran this was in 2012, where I placed 6th in 25:08.  After the twilighter, the training will switch over and I'll do 2 weeks of endurance work, and go right into specific marathon training in August.  The difference here is that I will be going into the training very aerobically strong and fast(used to 100 mpw already with high intensity), and shifting the workouts by putting more effort into the longer runs and longer tempos, and moving my mileage up to 120 mpw.  Since dropping out of Chicago last year, I've been determined to come back to the windy city and finish the damn race this time.  I'll pick up where I left off last time, which was at mile 16.  

  

Changing Gears

I've been doing some nice shorter distance racing towards the end of spring/beginning of summer.  Things have been going really well and I feel like I have gotten a lot more efficient at running faster.  I've hit some PRs this spring, so far in the mile, 5K, and my coach and I agree that Cherry Blossom would have been, but the course got changed and therefore is an unknown(even though they re-measured it again and again-at first saying it was 9.54, then making it 9.39.  You just don't know what the result for 10 miles really would have been(they have me at 50:56 extrapolated).  What we do know is that I competed very well in that race(#20, 12th American).  Kieran O'Connor, one of the top runners in the area(and a sub 1:06 half marathoner), beat me last year by nearly 30 seconds, in 50:30.  This year, I surprisingly beat him by nearly a full minute, however I later learned that he had a tough time since his shoe came untied during the race.  Interestingly, last year, I was 5 minutes and 28 seconds behind winner Stephen Sambu(he ran 45:29 and I ran 50:57).  This year, I was 4 minutes and 28 seconds behind the repeat champion, exactly 1 minute closer to him.  Stephen certainly ran slower than last year, and the distance was slightly shorter, but I'll never really know what these times mean, just that maybe, just maybe, I have gotten a bit closer to these world class guys, and clawing my way closer to the top American guys.  I also believe Jacob Riley would have gotten Greg Meyer's 46:13 American record.  It was impossible for the Cherry Blossom race organizers to do so, however.  Again, you just don't know-it wasn't the full 10 mile distance and it was a different course.  I give Cherry Blossom's crew a huge applause for keeping the race going, I was amazed they were able to do so given the circumstances.  There were some very good athletes in this race.  Jared Ward, the 2015 US Marathon Champion, placed 10th, and Luke Puskedra(1:01 half marathoner) out of Eugene, Oregon, was 12th.    
Top 25 Results:

1 STEPHEN SAMBU 43:20  KEN
2 JACOB RILEY 43:28 ROCHESTER, MI
3 ELISHA BARNO 43:31 KEN
4 DANIEL SALEL 43:34 KEN
5 GIRMA MESCHESO 43:43 WEST CHESTER, PA
6 DOMINIC ONDORO 43:53 KEN
7 PHILIP LANGAT 43:53 KEN
8 LEONARD KORIR 44:00 KEN
9 MOURAD MAROFIT 44:05 MAR
10 JARED WARD 44:20 PROVO, UT
11 DERIBA YIGEZU 45:11 ETH
12 LUKE PUSKEDRA 45:25 EUGENE, OR
13 CHRIS KWIATKOWSKI 45:43 ARLINGTON, VA
14 JOSH DEDERING 46:02 MINNEAPOLIS, MN
15 BRIAN HARVEY 46:28 BOSTON, MA
16 MATT SONNENFELDT 46:38 JOHNSON CITY, TN
17 ANDREW BRODEUR 47:01 BETHESDA, MD
18 TYLER ANDREWS 47:04 ARLINGTON, VA
19 MATTHEW BOUMEESTER 47:13 SAINT PAUL, MN
20 CHRISTOPHER SLOANE 47:48 GAITHERSBURG, MD  
21 BRIAN FULLER 48:02 CAMP HILL, PA
22 KIERAN O'CONNOR 48:35 ARLINGTON, VA
23 JERRY GREENLAW 48:37 ARLINGTON, VA
24 MATT DETERS 48:47 ARLINGTON, VA
25 PAUL BALMER 48:58 WASHINGTON, DC

May 11 - May 17

On Monday, May 11, I competed in the Swarthmore track meet 5,000m.  There were 3 heats of 25 runners in each heat, and I was in heat 1.  I placed 7th overall in a new personal best of 14:49.  My splits were pretty even(4:42, 9:25).  My friend Ashwin took some really cool photos and I will post soon.

The rest of that week was just general distance running and then a short workout on Saturday, May 16.  The goal was to start working on switching gears.  I did a 2400m, running the first 1,000m in 3:10(5:05 mile pace), and then I did the last 1400m in 4:05(4:40 mile pace), to finish the 2400m in 7:15.  

71 miles for the week.

May 18 - May 24

5/18: 3200m of 50m on/off: 10:10 total time.  I've gotten much better at these.  What used to be my best 2 mile in high school is now a moderate workout that is small compared to the rest of the week.
5/19: 3 x 1600m: 4:47, 4:48, 4:49, w/ 1 lap jog between each interval
5/20: 15 miles 6:30 pace
5/21: 3 x 400m: 62, 63, 64

66 Miles for the week.

May 25 - May 31

On Monday, May 25, I raced the Loudoun Street Mile in a new PR of 4:21.  This will really help the slower paces feel a lot slower, and was good to work on my running efficiency.  I placed 8th.
On May 28 I did a 3 mile tempo run on the track in 15:05.
On May 30 I did a pace changing workout again.  The goal was to switch from running 5:00 pace to 4;30 pace.  Splits below:
3 x 1600m, w/ 800m splits below:
2:30, 2:16
2:30, 2:16
2;30, 2:18

80 Miles for the week.

On Monday, June 1, I did 3200m of 50s again(10:15 total time).

On Tuesday, June 2, I did a ladder workout @ 4:46 pace:
1200m: 3:34
1600m: 4:46
2000m: 5:59

Wednesday, June 3 I got in 16 miles in the morning, followed by another 3 miles in the evening.  My mileage should be higher this week, and it is gradually climbing up over the summer.

My next race will be the Lawyers Have Heart 10K on June 13.

Monday Night 5,000m

I intend to write a race report on Cherry Blossom, but first I want to cover what I have done since.   Following Cherry Blossom, I have continued to sharpen my speed.  My mileage has been lower, but simultaneously my speed has gotten very, very sharp.  I have highlighted my workouts below during each week.  I did Pikes Peek 10K as more of a tempo run, as I realized I wasn't fully recovered after Cherry Blossom to race.  But since then, I've been feeling really, really good.

4/13-4/19: 60 miles
4/16: 3 x 1600m(50m on/50m off): 5:00, 4:53, 4:55
4/18: 1200m(3:37), 1600m: 4:48, 2000m: 6:05

4/20-4/26: 52 miles
4/21: 1600m: 4:41
4/26: Pikes Peek 10k: 31:29, 4th

4/27-5/3: 75 miles
4/30: 12 x 400m w/ 200m jog: 66, 68, 66, 68, 67, 67, 67, 67, 65, 65, 65, 65
5/2: moderate progression tempo: 3 miles: 15:15(5:19, 5:01, 4:55)

5/4-5/10: 51 miles
5/4: 3200m w/ 50m on/50m off: 10:15
5/7: 1600m: 4:37

Monday, 5/11, I race the Swarthmore 5,000m.  When I did that 12 x 400m workout on 4/30, I knew that was the key workout I needed for confidence in the 5K.  Not only was the pace averaging 65-67(13:50 5k pace!!), but the RECOVERY was only 200m jogs between(1:00 jogging recoveries).  I always know I am in my best shape when I can do a workout with short recoveries, whether training for a 5K, half marathon, or marathon, it's all relative.  Unless something goes drastically wrong in the race, I don't see how it's possible for me not to PR.  My best 5K is 14:53 from 2013.  I do feel like something quite fast is possible, I know that sub 70s feel doable, which would put me in the 14:20's.

How fast can I go?  We'll see Monday night.  I am certainly not going to hold anything back on this one.

12 1/2 laps on the track. All out.

50 Minutes

My current best time at the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler is from last year's race, in 50:57.  I was strong last year. but I feel stronger this year.  After the USA Cross Country Championships last December, I got to work.  I ran that race off of low mileage, a bit out of shape, and frankly, I got my ass kicked.  Roland and I got to work during the winter, doing the endurance segment he has been trying to get me to do for quite some time now.  To my own stubbornness, I declined the chance to do it last spring.  When I first started with him, it was May 2014, after a very successful spring season, and I had already decided to extend my season and do the Gary Bjorklund Half in June.  Roland didn't want me to do it, but I had committed to the race and the plane ticket was booked.  Ironically this is when I had approached him as if my subconsciousness knew I needed his help(and I did!).  He would have much rather me do an endurance segment, and it is not until I actually did it this past winter that I see why(I also didn't run that fast in the race anyway).  After that race, it was too late to do much of a segment, and we had to go into specific marathon training(keep in mind to not confuse this with high mileage, the endurance segment is more about getting more comfortable at running faster for longer periods of time, instead of sharpening).  Nonetheless, I knew I was strong and I attempted to do the Chicago Marathon but dropped out due to illness, but I think the illness was a sign of weakness, that something was missing.  This winter was the first time I did the Arthur Lydiard-style endurance segment.  Roland coaches me much like the Lydiard style, which I really do well under physically.  I trained myself during the winter to physically and mentally learn how to get comfortable running faster for a long time, off of high mileage and no track workouts.  Saturdays, I would run 12 miles pretty quick.  On Sunday, I would run 20 miles at the same pace or faster.  Much of my paces during these runs this winter were around 5:40 pace, and the pace started to feel sort of comfortable if that makes any sense.  I also noticed that I really enjoyed this phase.  "This is the hardest type of training you will ever do." Roland said as I talked to him over the phone.  "You may have never done this before."  I felt like I hadn't, though it gave me a sense of familiarity to a time when I trained for my debut marathon in 2005, which at the time was a breakthrough race for me.

For the past 4 months, I have run about 1,600 miles, averaging 100 miles/week, and have done it completely healthy.  In March I started track workouts and the sharpening of my speed has gone well.  My mileage went down once I started track stuff, and now it's time for competition.  I feel like I am in shape to break 50:00, but I'll certainly take beating my time from last year.  In order to do this, I need to run even, and really aim to attack the 2nd half of the race well.  I've never been able to negative split this race-last year I went through the first 5 miles in 25:15, and finished the 2nd 5 in 25:42.  My plan is to get to 10K in under 31:00(and feeling strong is key), if I can do that I know I'll be ready to break 50:00.  The later parts of the race I feel sharp enough to unleash my speed with 2 miles to go.  I know I have that sharpness that I didn't have last year.  I want to run the last 2 miles very, very fast.  I've tapered well going into this, this week below:

M- 2 x 1600m of 50s(50m sprint, 50m float): total times were 5:30, 5:15, 7 miles total
T-AM: 5 miles/PM: 6 miles
W-AM: strength training + 2 x 800m @ close to race pace: 2:30, 2:29, 5 miles total
PM: 4 miles
Th-AM: pool run 35-40 minutes
F-AM: easy 45 min
S-easy 3-4 miles + strides(this afternoon)
S- RACE

Some race press below on page 2, thanks to Jake Klim and Cherry Blossom:

http://cherryblossom.org/images/2015/2015_Pre-race_Newsletter.pdf

Good luck to all running tomorrow!

3/23-4/5

3/23-3/29:

M- 1600m of 50s (50m sprints, 50m floats), 8.5 miles total

T- AM: Track: 600m(1:44), 800m(2:20), 1000m(2:56), 800m(2:21), 800m(2:19), 800m(2:20), 

9.5 miles total

PM: 4.5 miles

W- 14.5 miles in Poolesville

Th- AM: 9 miles(progressed last 3 miles down to 5:15 pace)

PM: 4 miles

F- AM: 3 miles w/ 4 strides

S- AM: Track: 2 x 300m(50 sec), 13 x 200m(32-33 seconds each, w/ 200m jog), 

7 miles total

PM: 7 miles

S- AM: 19 miles

PM: 4 miles

Total: 90 miles

3/30-4/5:

M- 2 x 1600m of 50s (50m sprints, 50m floats), Duration(s): 6:00, 5:30

6.5 miles total

T- AM: Track: 2400m: 7:19, 1600m: 4:52, 800m: 2:23, 

8 miles total

PM: 3.5 miles

W- AM: 14.5 miles in Poolesville

PM: 5.5 miles

Th- AM: 3.5 miles w/ 4 strides

F- AM: Track: 8 x 600m: 1:46, 1:46, 1:45, 1:44, 1:44, 1;43, 1:43, 1:42, 

9.5 miles total

PM: 4 miles

S- AM: 5 mile progression: 31:00

PM: 3 miles

S- AM: 16 miles

PM: 5 miles

Total: 84 miles

My next post will be on my goals for Cherry Blossom, which is this coming Sunday, April 12.

Training 3/16-3/22

Good quality running this week for sure.  I got on the track again and it felt good.  I've been working out at the American University Track, which might just be my new favorite track.  My mileage has been a tad less the last few weeks(in the 90s), but one of the things I've worked well on is adapting to higher volume.  So far for the year 2015, the first 3 months I have averaged over 102 miles/week.  So taking it down a notch has felt good, but I was by no means fresh for the Van Metre 5 Miler race on Saturday.

Monday: 4.5 miles + 1600m of 50s @ AU Track; 50m sprint, 50m float, 50m sprint, 50m float etc

Tuesday: AM: 1200m(3:41), 1600m(4:51), 2000m(6:05) w/ 1 lap jog rec @ AU Track, 9.5 miles

PM: 3 miles easy

Wednesday: AM: 10.5 miles

PM: 5.5 miles

Thursday: 8 miles with 3 mile "moderate" tempo in 16:00 @ AU Track

PM: 5 miles

Friday: AM: 4.5 miles

PM: 3.5 miles w/ 4 x 200m strides

Saturday: AM: VAN METRE 5 MILER-This race was unbelievably the most twists and turns I have ever had to deal with.  To my own error, I didn't study the course well.  From the gun I put myself into 1st place, and for most of the race I was asking race officials which direction to turn next.  It was frustrating there wasn't a lead vehicle.  I was also unsure which tangents to run.  There were a few hills, which naturally I felt strong on from all the hill workouts I've done over the winter.  I could feel Greenlaw and Klim not far behind me, and was able to see where they were at each turn.  I eventually gained ground on them, and ran alone the entire race.  The effort felt like a hard tempo, I threw some surges in at the end to finish in 25:27, which seemed a bit slow, but my coach told me to not expect much from this.  However, many have told me that this course is always a tad long for some reason.  Who knows.  The important thing I cared about was that I got the effort in, and the win was nice, as this was my debut in the Saucony singlet.   

PM: 5 miles

Sunday:  20 Miles: I started out moderately on the towpath, coming through the first 10 miles in (67:00) minutes, but I was building my pace and ran quite quickly the 2nd 10 miles(58:00), finishing the total 20 miles in 2:05. The last 5 miles of the run I was running 5:40 pace and I saw Klim at Riley's Lock.  I thought I saw Greenlaw too but he wasn't there according to Jake's blog here: http://jakeklim.blogspot.com/.  I was amazed at how effortless this run felt, even after running the race yesterday.  Once I got back to the lock, as if 20 wasn't enough I decided to tag on a grueling 200m steep uphill run up the road that goes towards River Road.  I grinded up the hill, legs aching, and at the next plateau turned around, and finally said "ok, that's enough."  I jogged back down the hill, longing for food and a nap.  90 Miles for the week.

I think I am super fit but it won't really show in racing until the time is right, which hopefully, I'll be able to give something special at Cherry Blossom in 3 weeks.  My coach and I plan to taper down fully for that race, so I should be fresh and ready to go.  I also KNOW the course all too well now.  I have run this race every year since 2010.  I think sub 50:00 is possible this time around, we'll just have to wait and see.  My all time best for the distance is from last year in 50:57, so bettering that performance itself is a tall task.  This is the Trial of Miles, the Miles of Trials.  Your toughest competitor is yourself.

-Sloane