Towpath 5-Miler

I ran the Towpath 5-Miler again this year. It's the first race of the Towpath Trilogy, and there's also a half-marathon that day. Since I'm doing a half next Sunday (oh gosh, am I really prepared to PR?!), the 5-miler was my choice.

I was really apprehensive about doing it, though. I was afraid a poor performance was going to destroy my confidence and put me in a bad space before Athens. And it didn't help that I ran 10 miles on Saturday *and* I had a friend's surprise 40th birthday party on Saturday night. But a bunch of my friends were doing it, so I figured what the hell.

We managed to leave the party at a reasonable hour without overindulging too much, so that was a good start. When the alarm went off at 5:30 on Sunday, it wasn't too difficult to get up and moving - especially since it was WARM outside (mid50s, I think). I only ate half of a bagel, so I ended up having some of Aaron's Honey Stinger chews beforehand (gross, btw - it's a texture thing).

I didn't run the race that smartly. I didn't really have a strategy - just try to stick around mid 9s and hope for the best.

Mile 1 was about 9:30, and I think mile 2 was as well. I slowed down for 3 and 4, but I killed it for mile 5 - under 9 minutes. My overall pace was 9:26, and I took a minute off my time compared to last year. I finished in 47:12. Not too bad (unless you compare my time to Aaron's, which was 41:xx).

So I'm not sure where this places my mindset for Athens. The online calculators indicate a PR (but not as much of a PR as I really want). I just have to keep telling myself that, at this point, there's not really anything I can do, training-wise, to change the outcome. I'll go through a whole overview about my training and my plan at a later date. Let's just say that my plan was too aggressive, and instead of scaling back, I just let myself keep falling short. I probably should have reevaluated earlier.

Anyhow, last week's workouts:
Monday: strength + 6-mile interval run
Tuesday: yoga
Wednesday: 5-mile progression run
Thursday: strength + 4-mile hill run
Friday: off
Saturday: 10-mile long run
Sunday: 5-mile race

30 miles for the week plus two strength sessions and yoga. Not too bad. The only run I skipped was doing anything post-yoga. I was tired so it made since to give myself a break.

This week:
Monday: strength + 3-mile easy run (maybe?)
Tuesday: yoga + 3-mile easy run (if I don't run Monday)
Wednesday: strength + 5-mile progression run
Thursday: yoga + 3-mile easy run
Friday: off
Saturday: off
Sunday: race (eek!)