cheerfulTuesday: My friend AU wanted to do a tempo run and asked if I wanted to join. I figured why not? I had taken the day off from work and it always feels good to get a quality run in. Result? 10.5 miles at an 8:20 clip. Including hills up by morningside park. Sweet.
Wednesday: Nike speed with 5 x 1000m on the track. I knew I needed to be careful with the intensity of the night before. Result? 8 min pace with ease - felt really good. Last one? 7:35 pace. Hmm something's happening here.
Thursday: Met up with friends at Niketown to meet Kara Goucher. She is AMAZING. Totally down to earth and loves NYC. Who wouldn't:) Anyway, that ended up being close to a 4 mile run at an 8:40 clip. My legs were tired but still felt ok.
Friday: Rainy and OFF.
Saturday: Race day. 4 miler in Central Park. Quite honestly I had no idea what to expect. My legs could give me an 8 min mile race or surprise me. First, I got a red corral number since it was an all female race. This gave me extra juice to give it a go. Then Kara Goucher showed up to wish us well. Hey, if miss 4:55 min/mile interval girl is there, I can't half ass this! As the horn blazed, I just said "to hell with it" and raced. Off I went and managed to pull my second fastest 4 mile run EVER. Holy crap! This after the week I had already? What would happen on rested legs? 29:32 result/7:23 pace. Quite pleased.
Sunday: 20 miles. This was a true test on dead legs. I think it was great practice for race day. Those last couple
What now? I'm taking a bit of a down week to prepare for the Philly Distance Run (Ryan Hall is running it!) next weekend. My goal? I want to have a solid race. Sub 1:45 would be great. If I can sub 1:45 and feel decent it makes that magical number come October 25th seem not so invincible.
I'm excited. Things are starting to come together and I think the missing link from the past couple years - speed - is back in the equation. Six weeks to go and hopefully it will continue to build towards the elusive goal. Bring it! Time to get to that finish line...
