April 29th through May 5th

Sunday, April 29th
RI State Police Foot Pursuit 5k, 16:50  3rd overall, WTAC Win.
http://coolrunning.com/results/12/ri/Apr29_RhodeI_set1.shtml

Prior to today, I had never run the Foot Pursuit before.  Going into the race, I knew the field was always competitive and expected some challenges throughout the race.  Ran a 2 mile warmup solo and felt stiff and tired.  Before the race, I told myself to just run your own race, have fun, and see what happens.  I was pumped for the team competition and knew WTAC had a good chance to do well.

At the starting line, I lined up the Colonel, Muddy, and Derek J.  I never really got comfortable in this one.  I hit my first mile at 5:21 and thought it felt like a 5:10..oh man!  As I approached the 2 mile mark, Derek J. made a move and passed me by.  After hitting the 2 mile in 11:00,  I knew my time wasn't going to be great and changed my focus to the competitors around me.  As Derek cruised in front of me, I could hear a couple of other runners closing in behind me.  I decided that it was time to "man up."  You can hunt or be the one hunted!  Long story short, I was able to close in on Derek and slightly pull away from him by a few seconds. 

While I would have liked to have run faster, I was happy with how I finished.  WTAC took the team competition, my teammates ran well, and we had fun.

Where is my prize anyway?  Guess it's pay back for all of those speeding tickets I've avoided.

1.5 miles cooldown.

Liked this race!

Pros:
-Strong finish
-WTAC win & turnout (Muddy, Jeff, Dave, Matthew)
-Desire to run faster (I want to get to sub 1640)
-General fun atmosphere

Areas of improvement:
-Overall pace
-Poor focus in the first two miles
-General tightness (need to stretch)
-We need those club singlets...stat!

Monday,April 30th
6.5 miles
2.5 with the girls, followed up by another 4 miles at a pretty solid pace through Weekapaug.  General post race soreness and finished at a hard pace.

Tuesday, May 1st
7 miles..first part of run was roads at a slow pace, second part of the run was from my house down to the Weekapaug Sand Trail. Ran on the trail until I came across a rock that said, "Turn around, too late."  It's never too late.  I may start hitting up this trail for some of my add-ons.  I felt pretty beat up after this one!

Wednesday, May 2nd
Planned off day...
Coached Unified Track after work.
Did some pushups, pull-ups, and core work before bed.

Thursday, May 3rd
7 miles..
First part of run with the girls, followed by 15X 1 minute hard/1 minute easy.  Solid.

Friday, May 4th
7.5
4.5 at a moderate pace through Dunn's Corners and Weekapaug neighborhoods.  After the first part of this run I picked up Kelsey and Lulu and ran over to my parents for a visit.

I was really hungry at the end of this one...I think I ate my parents out of house and home.  Followed up the visit with a trip to Appleby's.  If I get bored with the road racing scene, I can always try out for Man vs. Food!

Saturday, May 5th
A.M-7 miles
-3 mile warmup with the girls
-Followed by 8X300m hill on Meadow Ridge Lane.  All of reps were between 57 and 59 until I banged out a 55 on the last one.  I can't say I gained speed from this workout but it was a good strength builder.
-1 mile cooldown

PM-Cinco De Mayo Wedding in Holyoke=good time!


Weekly Total
40 miles
A solid training week.  I didn't get a long run in, but I was able to get some good speed workouts in there.  I'm in a little funk right now.  I don't have any big goal in site and haven't been able to get even close to any of my PRs in races.  On the up side of things, I'm happy to be training and that I'm healthy.