Sunday 110809

I got word that the Rocky Mountain Road Runners were meeting up for an event pretty close to my home (Big Dry Creek – which I run on regularly either from home or work).  I had never run with these folks, so I was interested to check it out, had the time this AM, and was interested in seeing how the handicap start went. 

The event was a 9 mile “race,” out and back 4.5 miles on the Big Dry Creek Trail.  I was not feeling really up for a race, as I was dealing with the “hey you did a workout two days ago” syndrome, but figured it would make for a solid workout.

I showed up about a half an hour before the event.  In order to “seed” me, they asked for a recent 5k or 10k time.  I did not want to sandbag the handicap, and so I gave them the 18:14 from the Broomfield Days 5k.  “Okay, you will start 46 minutes and 10 seconds after the first folks start.”  WOW.  I was not really expecting to wait THAT long.  Oh well.  I hung around for the initial (time zero) start and then started some real slow jogging.

The Garmin suddenly refused to cooperate (worked fine yesterday).  It just would not stay powered on.  It was fully charged so I have to assume the power button is now jacked (much like the scroll down button is).  Definitely can’t hold off on servicing it now.  Reverted to the reliable Highgear, knowing that the miles would be well marked on the trail.

My jogging for warm up was SUPER slow (foe mw).  Like 10 minutes a mile.  If that.  I felt like ass and seriously questioned if I’d be able to run sub sevens for this effort.  I made a mental note to set the bar at an hour for a solid tempo, but gave myself the out to just jog it if the wheels were coming off.  After forty minutes, I called it four miles and stripped down to essentials for the hard running.  I am surprised actually how easy it feels to suddenly get out at low sixes after feeling like crap running at 10s.

One guy lined up with me at our handicap time and then there was one other guy with a handicap slower than us.  We got out comfortably, chatted a bit, both got our excuses out (just want to get a workout, I am coming off Denver Marathon, blah, blah, blah) and then got into a comfortable rhythm.  I still felt kind of crappy.  In the nine miles at Denver, I felt like I was ready to rip legs off.  Today, mine felt like they should be ripped off.   Lots of that little self talk of, “just get to 2 miles and see how it feels.” 

Just past two miles, this other guy and I were still running together.  I decided to test things up a bit and pressed the gas very very lightly and got a little daylight.  Shortly after this point, I focused on a guy well ahead of us (he left in the handicap wave just ahead of us) and began to work on reeling him in (it would take another 5 miles).  

Just before three miles, the last runner caught us and put 30 yards on us pretty quickly.  He would stay there most of the rest of the run (compared to me) but then opened it up nicely in the last mile to probably double that (or more).

My legs never felt great, so I was toying with the fact that I’d go hard for five and then jog it in.  This is such a lame mental trick because I know when I get to five, I am going to say, “well get to six” and so on.  But it sort of works.

I hit the turn around in 28 low.   I took note that the guy had started with was now 20 seconds back, and our leader was consistently checking on me.  I had little doubt that he had it wrapped up based on how I felt.  He’d come back a little on the uphills, but he was opening the gap up on the downs.  At 5 miles, it suddenly seemed like we were dealing with a lot more uphill then we got on the way out (for downhills) and there was a decent wind coming out of the west in our faces.  We were catching a lot of folks at this point, so that served nicely for motivation and mental break up.

6:18, 6:26 (12:44), 6:07 (18:51), 6:19 (25:10), 6:31 (31:40), 6:17 (37:57), 6:26 (44:23), 6:27 (50:51), 6:18 (57:09).

Average pace was 6:21.  This is a bit slower than the DM 9.1 mile leg (where I averaged 6:18), but this was a lot tougher than that (hills, wind, and dead legs) so I am pretty good with it comparatively.  13 miles on the day.

Low key event – which was fine – exactly what I was looking for.  Left to get home about three minutes after finishing.

80 miles on the week with 10 hours and 50 minutes.  November is 91 miles, 736 minutes.   3140 miles on the year, 27792 minutes.  It is the 312th day of the year so there are 53 days left in the year.  To average 10 a day for the year, I need to get 510 miles or 9.6 miles a day.  I still think it is a stretch goal because I will probably take a good number of days off in December.