Hungry

Wednesday's workout really kicked my butt. My stomach was rocked that night and I didn't run again until late on Thursday afternoon. That run, a 6-mile jog, was extremely taxing.I almost bagged it after 3! On Friday, my legs still felt beat so I took the day off, knowing I had a hard workout scheduled for Saturday morning.

On Saturday, I met Outlaw and Viking on Hains Point for 3-miles hard/15:00 (faster than 10-mile race race). I ran a similar workout before Army last fall and it seemed to help me key in on what pace to run. We went out perfectly, but I struggled the last 1/2 mile - 15:05 (501, 501, 503). The time was fine, but the effort felt hard. That said, I was happy to get it done.

I Sunday I met Ban, Luff and Dix at Edward's Ferry for the Large Animal Loop (14+ miles). The first 8 miles are pancake flat, but the last 6 certainly have their share of rolling hills. While approaching one of these inclines, Luff asked whether the object protruding from the ground about a half mile away was an structure. "No", I replied, "that's a hill". Sam and I picked up the pace a little and I hit the last few miles in 5:55, 5:39 and 5:30. It felt good to get out there and roll a little.

I got in 63 miles last week (6 days). Meh.

I will go VERY easy this coming week - take Tuesday off, workout Wednesday morning and take Friday off - then ramp it back up again the following week and keep things going until Pike's Peek and then Broadstreet. Somewhere in there I wouldn't mind getting in a hard 5k - I desperately need some speed.

Cherry Blossom is now less than one week away. I certainly feel unprepared, but at this point there isn't much I can do about it. I'm hoping I can somehow *bridge* the gap between my fitness in January and my recent workouts. That, combined with my experience racing ten miles, and this race in particular, will hopefully get me through this. This will be my sixth time Cherry Blossom Ten Miler:

2007 - 52:53/34th
2008 - 52:37/23rd
2009 - 51:29/26th
2010 - 50:56/22nd
2011 - DNR/injured
2012 - 52:32/26th 

I'll have to see what shakes out on race day.

2007 with Bert Rodriguez and Brian Baillie