Race

5-k warmup on course, 23:25 with Mccarthy and Knickerbocker.  Didn't really feel warm,  negative something degrees.

Race went really well.  I went out nice and easy as planned the first Kilometer before getting into a solid pace after that.

Kilometer splits of
3:34
3:10
3:18
3:16
3:13
16:32 total, just a second back from first place.  Some slick sections between 3-4k, but mostly it was just cold.

5-k course again for cooldown with Mccarthy, 21:17

Easy run

12.6 miles with Andy.  With temps in single digits to maybe around 10 degrees, it was not too bad.

1:26:24,  slowest mile 7:16, fastest 6:42.

Moderate run and some pool work

Jumped on treadmill,  7.5 miles, 43:53.  Pickups every half mile.  Middle mile in 5:22 to stretch legs.  1.5% incline the whole way.  No one was on other 3 treadmills, so I felt I could stay on the one I was on a bit longer than the 30 minute time limit.

Felt good to run in shorts and actually feel like I was running. 

15 minutes of deep water running in pool after to start to get used to that element of training.  Sucks, but makes me strong, rests my legs some, and makes my running form better.  I tried to explain what I was doing by running in deep water to the lifeguard but I'm pretty sure they just thought I was nuts. 

Obsessed is probably a better word than nuts.

Put up a picture of track I'll be racing on in March in DC. 

A cold run

Went out the door for 12.1 miles,  cold going out with tailwind, damn cold coming back, full mask helped.  1:28:03.

Only had one mile under 7:00 pace and a couple in the 7:30 range.  Between the slick roads, the many layers I had on, and the wind, today was a make sure I'm not a pu*sy day.  I just put one foot in front of the other until I was about 6 miles out, then I was screwed and had to run back.

Honestly, I think it's smarter to get some treadmill running in on a day like this, but I took the last 5 years off and was kind of interested to see if I had developed weenie syndrome. Nope, just dumb.  Plus the last few weeks have sucked and at some point you just have to get ourside.  Although I'm sure I just burned fat at the pace I was going today and did little to boost my fitness, but probably not too many dumb asses out running today, so that's got to be some bonus tough points.

Bike

30 minutes on the bike trainer.  Needed to do something.

Going to be a pretty low volume werk, but I just got in two good weeks, and some good snowshoe runs this week.

See how fitness is on Sunday at 5-k.  Supposed to be -5 at start time.  That's getting close to coldest I've ever raced in.  Think the coldest was set the pace 5-k in 2010.  Managed to run 15:05 ish then, so hopefully low to mid 16s will be good now.

Snowshoe hills

Met up with Erik for some snowshoe running.  It wasn't as cold as I thought, but definitely not nice.

We got in 1.5 mile warmup in 15:42 on the golf course.

Then we did 5x30 second hills up Big Bunker, looping down a more gradual way back to start.  About 10-12 minutes total,  I accidentally stopped my watch.  Big Bunker gets gradually steeper as you go, really working calves and hip flexors. 

1.90 cooldown on golf course, 18:32 before taking the snowshoes off and getting 1.13 miles of land running in, 7:48.

Yesterday was a day off.  Mostly I slept or worked. 

Snowshoe run

Just enough snow by night to get a snowshoe run in.  40:22 of running with the planks on.

White Christmas

Well I haven't really decided what I'm going to do today.  I'm not sure we've gotten enough snow yet to go for a snowshoe run.  Ymca is closed, so no treadmill.  So it's probably either the tour du France spin bike, or my bike trainer at home.

I'd like to run since Tuesday I'm not going to be able to until midnight.  I think Wednesday if there is enough snow a run up Cadillac mnt on snowshoes is in order. 

Track

Alright, I've scheduled four track meets.

First one will be in Providence on Jan. 28th.  USATFNE masters meet.  Going to run 5000, 3000, and 1500.  That's a lot, but should keep me from going out in any of the races too fast.

Then Feb. 10th there is a UMAINE meet at Orono.  Probably do the mile against the college guys, really get my ass whooped on.

Feb. 25th, another meet at UMaine.  Going to run 3000 and either mile or 800.

March 16th through 18th, USATF Masters meet in DC.  Going to run 3000 friday night, 1500 on Saturday, and 800 on Sunday.

3000 should be interesting because I get out of work at 7:30am friday, fly out from bangor at noon and get to DC by 3pm.  Race is about 7pm.  But, fck it.

Road races through  feb.  Are 5-k on Dec. 31st, a 4.5 miler January 21st, the 10-miler feb. 4th, and a 2.5-k on Feb. 18th.

Workout

3 mile warmup, 19:24.  Out to my loop, but this time of year I have to go the longer, hillier way.

Workout went extremely well.  Fitness is really coming around.

.56 miles, 2:50.72
.28 easy
.16 uphill, :53.2
.16 down easy.

Did this five times total.

Other .56's were 2:50.22, 2:49.42, 2:49.57, and 2:42.36.

Other .16 hills were 52.8, 52:69, 51.85, 49.52.

5.8 miles in 34:14.95.

3 mile cooldown, 19:53.

11.8 total, 1:13:32,

Whole thing in trainers.

Easy run

5- miles on treadmill, 32:52, another half mile on track, some drills.

Easy run

5 miles in treadmill, 31:48.  Pickups every half mile.

Lifting after.

About 59 miles for week.

Essy run

Had a lot of chores to do around house, so got up at noon and worked on those until 3.  Just started to snow as I headed out the door.

By a mile in the roads were covered and the ice hiding underneath almost got me a few times.  Wanted to go way longer, but too dangerous.  I have no interest getting hurt from falling again.

Going to go jump on treadmill later at ymca to get another run in.

4.1 miles, 27:03.
6:25
6:52
6:26
6:38
:40

4th mile I had to stop with no shoulder and cars coming at me.  This winter has sucked the last two weeks.  Even with snow it's cold out there. 

I think they ordered new part for treadmill at work, so I can get in some longer runs soon.  I'd be just fine running 100% of my runs on treadmill once I can go longer than 30 minutes.  Ymca treadmills go faster than 5:00 pace, but it's always 75 degree in there and the 30 minute time limit doesn't work for me.  The lifting is going well and I can notice my strength and power going way up.  Still hovering around 150 pounds.  Need to shed a few still, but at least I don't have far to go.

How to come back

The first thing I had to do is start to run again.  By June of 2012 I pretty much stopped running.  A few times from Mid 2012 until March of 2017 I managed to get a few weeks to a couple of months of training in.

What really kind of ticked me off was in 2014 I headed over to the Northeast Harbor 5-miler with Autumn who was running it.  I hadn't run in many months but decided to sign up.  I ended up running 35:13 for 28th place and I was like holy shit, I got to do something.  In 2015 the PD had a relay team for MDI marathon and I managed to get myself into shape to run first 12 miles in just under 70 minutes.  That was my longest training stint, a couple of months.  Finally in November and December of 2016 I got almost a month in, started with a couple miles a day, then somehow I got injured and didn't run again until March 2017 and since then it's gone well.   

As anyone can see from my schedule, I've run a shitload of races this year since I started back running in March.  Started with the Eastern States 20-miler, even though I hadn't run more than a 12 mile run before that, but needed to get a long run before Sugarloaf marathon, and other than this 20-miler, the rest of my long runs for Sugarloaf didn't exceed 16.3 miles.

I paid for that at Sugarloaf, but 2:35 for second place with some pretty shitty training, I was happy to finish as well as I did.

Normally, 25+ races in a year is way too much, but the best way to get in shape after a break is to race.  For one, I'm a pretty competitive person, so early on I was getting my butt kicked pretty bad, which motivates me.

Later as I got in better and better shape I was finishing top 3 in all of the local stuff.  The next step, go out of state.  Maine's got some big races, but going to New England X-C champs was good for me, because I really got my ass kicked, 67th place.  Finally, going to US X-C masters race really hammered home how far I still have to go, but although I only got 33rd there, I didn't feel like the lead pack would have been out of my fitness level if I hadn't gone out and led the first mile.  Stupid. 

I was kind of planning on the US 50-k champs in March, but after running low on Iron in November and the beginning of December, I had no motivation to get the long runs I needed.  As it turns out, I'm going to get a bunch of indoor track meets in with US Masters champs in March as the goal.  I've got a free place to stay in DC, and although I really want to run the Masters Road grand prix, it's going to be too expensive to go to some of those.

So I'm going to head to southern Maine for some bigger races, do some of the New England grand prix races, and do the US champ races that happen to be in the New England area.  My big trip for next year will be going to Washington State for US Masters marathon champs in October.

Light workout

2.1 mile warmup outside,  triple layered, so cold.  14:00.

Short simple workout.  I was going to do 10x2:30 downcycles outside with 90 seconds float.  Too cold to try and go fast outside, plus the treadmill is getting me in better shape.

Did 5x2:30 downcycles, but instead of getting faster every 30 seconds, I brought incline up every 30 seconds and kept it at 6:00 pace for entire workout other than last one when I sped up to 5:56 pace.

30 seconds @ 2%
30 @ 3%
30 @ 4%
30 @ 5%
30 @ 6%

Then 90 seconds float at same pace but @ 0%, probably equal to 6:15 mile effort. 

At 6:00 pace 2% is about equal to 5:52 pace, and 6% about 5:16 pace.  I did this workout a lot on treadmill in 2010 on the shitty cold days, so it seems to work.  Makes flat running feel really easy.

Could have squeezed a couple more in with 30 minute treadmill time limit, but I decided to do some pickups at 5:00 pace @ 1.5-2% to finish off my time.  5 miles total, 29 something.

1 mile easy on the square 100 meter track before throwing the layers back on.

2.13 cooldown outside, 14:40.  Way colder in dark.

Easy run

8.03 miles, 51:41.  Pretty nice outside.  Spit snow the whole time, but other than mile 5 having a cold headwind, it was a pleasant run.

6:19
6:41
6:19
6:23
6:32
6:42
6:15
6:16
:10

Easy run

Unplanned midnight run.  Still about 38 degrees when I got out of work.  Roads were just starting to get slick in spots, but no one was out so I just ran in middle of road around town in light.  I always keep my running stuff with me and glad I do.

4.18 miles, 27:39.  Legs felt really good.  Just cruised.  One of those runs that makes you feel good.  Went out thinking 7:00 pace would be good in dark, after work, but was pleasantly surprised, especially after the long workout yesterday.  My energy levels are definitely back to where they were in October.  I was pretty run down November and December.

I'm going to try and do a couple of these after work to sneak in a few more miles.  Lasts weeks 63 miles was my highest since before MDI, but I'd like to be over 60 a week from here on.  Maybe a couple of weeks close to 80.

The new schedule I'm going to should help training wise.

Easy bike

32 minutes on bike trainer.  Loosen the legs up and give them a rest from the pounding.

Workout

Headed up to track at Umaine.

1.5 mile warmup, 10:12.

4x2-miles, 10:48, 10:46, 10:42, 10:41.

400 meter jog rest between.

4x200,
30.63
31.60
30.78
30.53

200 meter jog rest between.

1.5 mile cooldown, 10:35.

Felt good, nice and even and had more in the tank.  Nice to run with shorts and no shirt.

Log

2010 I did workout I'm going to do tomorrow, today I guess now.  4x2-mile, 4x200.  With Gomez at 6am in 2010.

Our splits for the two miles were 10:25, 10:29, 10:29, 10:21 with 400 easy.  Then my splits for 200 were 31, 31, 29, 30 with 200 easy between.  That was about two weeks before running 5:06 pace at midwinter.

So goal today is 11:00 to start, then hopefully getting a little faster, maybe 10:40.  200s hopefully 33-34.  With about 6 weeks out, this should be good.

Easy run

8.63 miles, 57:51.  Three layers kept me pretty warm.  Kept the brakes on with workout tomorrow.  Got in a couple uphill strides after. 

Thinking I may go to Umaine indoor track tomorrow and do 4x2-mile at goal 10-mile pace to a little faster with short rests, then 4x200 after at mile pace.  For one, the roads here suck, icy as heck, second, there's really not a good place to do two mile repeats here, and three I really want to run in shorts and not be freezing cold.  Midwinter might be cold, but that doesn't mean I have to run every workout in the cold.

Today's splits, 

6:45
7:02
6:41
6:42
6:48
6:43
6:35
6:34
3:57 for last Km.

Coldplay

These are the days where the training really counts.  22 degrees, feels like 10.

In the end, the question is "what do you want?".

Right now I'm looking at running the US masters indoor track champs in mid march.  Plane tickets are cheap to DC and one of my former coaches can put me up.

So that means I need at least one track meet beforehand.   Maine usatf meet February 25th in orono. 

I'd rather go to Virginia beach mid march, but tickets are more expensive, and I'd have to rent car and get hotel room.  I'm not made of money, not sure how the top masters get to all the races.

Easy run

5.5 miles, treadmill, 34:54.  Pickups every mile.

Medium run

I ended up getting dropped off at head of island,  ran to northeast harbor, then a loop around town.  Dark last few miles, whole run was cold and I never warmed up.

14 miles easy with 1 minute pickups every 10th minute, although those were not very fast with the amount of clothes I had on and how cold I was.

1:32:56.

Maybe try for a longer run on a warmer day.  That was brutal.  If I only had the treadmill at work operational.

Still 63.7 miles for week which is higher than I've been since before MDI.

Easy run

6 miles outside.  39:28.
5:40
5:46
5:30
6:41
6:23
6:24

Easy run

5 miles, treadmill, 31:49.

Legs are sore today

The lunges and split jumps I did yesterday made my Hamstrings nice and sore.  In the last 4 weeks I've gotten my squat up from just over 100 pounds to over 200.  Need to get it to double my weight or about 300 before Midwinter.

Easy run today and tomorrow.  Friday a long run and I'll either do 1 minute surges every 10th minute or 7 to 1 with half rests.  Usually I run the first 7,6,5,4 flatter getting faster each one.  Then the 3,2,1 I usually do uphill.  Rests get shorter as you go which makes a good workout.  I'd like to do somewhere between 16.5 to 20 miles. Mileage should be up over 60 for the week.

Snowshoe and some treadmill

Went out about 6pm.  Raining, but enough snow to get some snowshoe running in.

Did 15 minutes of that, managed 1.3 miles.  Then went and got 4.7 miles in on treadmill in 30:00.  This really felt good after having the snowshoes on my feet.

I did a couple of pickups.  I was trying to see how fast the treadmill goes.  I got it under 4:00 pace before forgetting that idea.  Fasten enough.

Plyometics, drills, lifting after.

The next 6 weeks

I'm going to be following a pretty aggressive training plan the next 6 weeks.  Mileage is going up.

With all the extra time at the airport yesterday, I wrote down my plans.  Figured it would take my legs two easy days between workouts to be fairly fresh, three to be fresh.  So I'm taking two. 

Although I raced saturday morning and was able to hammer out a workout tonight, that's not going to be the norm.

I'll take the two days rest unless my legs are good beforehand.  If I do what I did today and just take a day, then I'm going to make myself take three days easy before getting into the three day cycle of workout, easy, easy again. 

I am only going to run a long run every 12-14 days which worked well in 2010, and let's me squeeze more workouts in.

Don't know if it's the right plan, but it's a plan and whatever that is I'm going to believe in it.

Looking back to my log on December 15th, 2009, I did a 12-k tempo in 40:17.  Faster than today, but I also did that on the track, so today on a hilly point to point course was pretty good.

Workout

Planned on workout tomorrow, but I felt good and did my planned workout tonight instead.

2.1 miles warmup, 13:56

7.5 miles steady, 42:03,  ran pretty even other than sections that were super icy and a few times I got off into snow to avoid cars.

Pretty happy with this, especially in trainers.  After warmup I started from town. Ran out schooner head, around overlook, park loop past sand beach, thunder hole and down otter cliff road a bit.  Tried to run even pace, so I pushed the uphills and cruised the downs.  5:36 pace in control, goes to show how tough xc course was two days ago, because course today has a few hills.

6.1 mile cooldown, 40:38.

15.7 miles total, 1:36:38.

Energy levels are up, going to keep taking the iron.  Getting blood tested friday to make sure things are good.

Sleep and a run

Got into Bangor by 3pm  Slept the whole ride home, then until about 7:30pm. 

Got up, studded some shoes with sheet metal screws and got in 5.3 miles in the snow and ice.  38:02.

We got enough snow to maybe get some snowshoe running in tomorrow. 

So the trip was pretty terrible.  The race was awesome, and there's no substitute for running against fast runners. 

Delayed

Got up around 4am, although I didn't sleep much.  Drove to Louisville got on my flight to DC.  Arrived early but my flight at 10am to bangor keeps getting delayed.  Right now it's 12:45.  Not sure I'll get a run in with midnight shift tonight.  Blah, this has been a pretty terrible trip.

Next race

The thing I loved about running at Zap years ago is all the races I went to were competitive. 

Although I would have liked to be higher up today, it still will make racing the local stuff easier.

I may do Epic 5k at end of month if I don't work night before.  After that I'd love to run winter xc nationals, but it's a day before midwinter, so that's out.

Then it's a choice between running Shamrock 8-k in Virginia or indoor track champs in Maryland.  Got a free place to stay in Maryland.

Then some usatfne champ races.  I think I'll skip the 50-k for a year or so.

Then as many of the usatf masters grand prix races I can get to.

So looking at open xc 10-k today.  My time would have got me 319th place, damn.

Now I just need to get back to Maine and get some solid training in.

Race

After running 2.5 mile warmup on course I was going to be happy under 35 minutes.  Tough.

Goal was to go out with lead pack and sit in.  Thought it would go out faster.  I got out really well, 75 seconds through 400 which isn't that fast, but no one was with me.  They were smarter.

I ended going out in 5:05 for mile in the lead.  Should have just gone out with pack, because between 1 and 3 I got passed by 40 people.  Ran even the rest of way.  17:10 ish through 5-k, 34:27 for final time.

Ended up finishing 33rd. Felt good energy wise.  Not my kind of course. 

Very uneven surface, long gradual hills, and the wind was miserable in 25-30 degree weather.  Even when I got behind a group it didn't help with wind much with my height.  Snow for open runners

But I had fun and learned how those top guys race.  I'll do better in road racing.

I got Dirigo some good press in the first mile, haha.

3 mile cooldown.  Good 11.7 to start the week.

Morning in Kentucky

Interesting night.  My room never heated up, so around midnight they switched me to another room. 

Got up to some nice 21 degree weather outside.  Breakfast, then listened to guy across the hall puke and dry heave for 20 minutes.

Race is at 10:45.  Goal is to go out at least in top 15-20 and stay in that group as long as possible.  Who knows.

Made it to Kentucky

Alright,  flew out of bangor at 10:30, hung out in Philly until 3:30.  Then got into Louisville by 5:45.

Because I was trying to use Autumn's debit card, it's actually ours, but her name is on it, 9 out of 10 company's would rent me a car.

Last one I got one.  70 miles from Lexington.  Shit I could run there by morning I guess.  Screw that.  Got to hotel by 7:45, as they were carrying numbers away, just in the nick of time.

Had good meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner which was my goal for today, other than getting here.

Some of exciting news, first thing I got was 2018 masters grand prix schedule.  Cal international is out, marathon in Washington is in.

Easy run

3.63 miles at 6am.  24:54.  Just over 50 miles for the week.

Headed to get my flight.

Easy run

7.9 miles, 52:43.

6:53, 7:07, 7:06, 6:23, 6:26, 6:32, 6:27, 5:48

Packed for trip

Just taking a carry on with me for the flight.  I think the last time I was on a plane was 2011 when I flew out to run grandma's marathon.

Flying into Louisville, then renting a car for the hour trip to Lexington.  Staying at host hotel which is about 5 miles from where race is.

Workout

2.5 mile warmup, 15:34

5.1 miles, 30:00 going
1 min, .20 miles
1 min. Easy
2 min, .37 miles
1 min. Easy
3 min, .53 miles
90 sec. Easy
4 min, .71 miles
90 sec. Easy
4 min, .73 miles
90 sec. Easy
3 min. .55 miles
90 sec. Easy
2 min, .38 miles
1 min. Easy
1 min, .20 miles
1 min. Easy

2.25 mile cooldown,14:40

Goal of workout was just to feel good.  And test out my left knee after yesterday's fall.  Everything felt good.  Just wore my trainers.  Was happy with this since I did it in dark in section of park loop road that is either slightly uphill or slightly downhill.  Just ran back and forth on same section so I didn't have to go around any turns.

7 stiches

Went to hospital once Autumn saw my hand.  Never needed stiches before, but needed 7 on the hand.  Oh, well, I feel good running anyways.

Plus I did 2+ miles after I fell, so I'm a badass=stupid, right.

Knee is a little sore, but I think it's good.  Know tomorrow after workout.

Here's my hand before going to hospital, Autumn was not impressed.

Easy run and a fall

7.13 miles, 47:20.   Went 7:10, 6:58, 6:50, 6:29, then just before 5 I took a wrong step in the dark and ate shit hard.  After laying on the ground I jumped up and got mile 5 in 6:20.  Blood everywhere so I stopped at pd and got a paper towel.

Then ran 6:16,  6:24, and :50 to finish.

More than running

Alright,  new dryer that hasn't worked in a while.

Just an electronic issue, but it had me stumped for awhile and I'm pretty good with electric work.  Finally figured it out. 

Now I can actually dry my clothes.

That's why I know my energy is going up.  My wife left me a lift of chores for when I got home from my overnight shift and I did the most important one.  Three days ago I would have tossed it and gone back to bed.

I've found a week or two of the herbal supplements always gets everything back and my energy goes from wanting to sleep 18 hours a day to barely needing sleep.

Like I said, just iron (mineral), astragalus, licorice, dandelion, and echinacea but the shit works.  Sometimes I wonder if the lyme disease I got years ago never went away.  Read that herbal supplements have helped a lot of people.

Well going to go for easy run.  Tomorrow morning a session of 1,2,3,4,4,3,2,1 minute pieces as I feel.  Really going to try and rest up well for this weekends race.  If a few guys take off fast I'm letting them go, but there should be a large pack near the front and I'm staying with that a mile to go or I fall off the backend.  Just have to be paying attention if someone mid race decides to go.  If I feel good I'm going with, but that only happens if I'm paying close attention.

Looks like castille dropped out of cal international marathon last weekend at 10-k, so he may well show up this weekend.  If he does there is no one who can beat him.

Also, I'm not sure about 50-k in march.  I really am thinking about working on 25-k and under stuff and not destroying my legs for most of march and April in one race.  So that's up in the air.

I also think in the fall there will be a USATF masters marathon champs, probably twin cities, but not sure yet, so cal international isn't 100% either.

By not running cal international or the 50-k I can do most of the usatf new england series, so that's nice since races are closer.

Looks like Dirigo has three new masters guys for next year.  We should do pretty well.  Hopefully I can lead the masters team and maybe help out open team.

Easy run

Moon was not all the way up, so I mostly did loops around town.

7 miles, 47:16.  Felt shockingly good.

Fastest mile was 6:30, slowest 6:58.

Diet of iron,  echinacea, astragalus, licorice, and dandelion seems to be getting my energy levels back.  I should feel pretty tired after the day I had, but I feel good.

Still, it will be nice to sleep all day tomorrow.

Long day

Worked the overnight.  Got out at 7:30, had two oui hearings in ellsworth at 11:45,12:15 so I snuck in a couple hours of sleep.  Back in bed by 2 this afternoon.  Never really slept much. 

Finally said screw it, time to get ready for run.

One week to go

One week to go until my last race of the year.  US Masters X-C champs.  First race for the 2018 masters grand prix.  Hopefully I can get my shit together and feel better than I did the last few days.  I've been pounding the iron.

Was going through the races from the end of July.

Pace wise I seem to be able to cover everything under 5:30 pace whatever the distance.  My tempo runs of 10-miles have all been around 5:20-5:35 pace.  What does this mean.  Well probably that my threshold is super good and I need to work on 10-k pace and that pace just between 10-k and tempo.  Maybe a workout like 3x2-miles at 10-k pace with 90 seconds rest to come or 10-15x1000 somewhere between 10-k and tempo with short rests.   Main goal is to run 5:31 pace for Midwinter 10-miler which I think I can do, but if I can make that easier by doing some work at 5:10-5:20 pace I'm going to.

Below I put in all the races where I ran seriously and didn't put in the downhill 4-k.

5-k's average pace
5:25(hilly)
5:25(hilly)
5:13
5:15
5:15


3-miler
5:15

4-miler
5:25(hilly)

5-milers
5:20
5:23(hilly)
5:29(hilly)

10-k's
5:20
5:29(x-c)  plus a bad race.

12-k
5:27(hilly)

first half of marathon
5:40 pace(hilly)

PM lifting, plyos

Who knew?  Ymca closes at 4 on Sundays. 

So I ended up doing most of what I usually do either outside, at gym at work, and at home.  Good enough to make me sore after.

Morning activities

3.1 mile warmup, 21:11.  Felt pretty aweful.  Not good.

After a few strides I felt better.  Ready for 5-k race.

Goal was to run first K hard.  Most of it is slightly uphill.  I ran it at red line and only hit 3:13.82 for a split. 

Second k was downhill mostly and I managed 3:11.85.

Hit the rolling hills on Shore road and decided to push the ups and cruise the downs.  Third k in 3:22.31.  I was happy with that.

Hit the turn around and happy to see Erik only about 8-10 seconds back. 

Next k back over the rolling section, 3:25.24. 

Then the major hill for the course.  Starts steep, then gradual to finish.  I pushed the steep part and then was really hurting on the gradual section.  A little downhill before the last turn and final flat bit to finish.  Last k in 3:24.77.

Wasn't at finish yet, another 8 seconds and 60 meters to the line. 

16:47.

Best part was turning around and seeing Erik crush his 5-k pr by more than 40 seconds.  17:01, on a tough course too.

Feel better already

Day with three iron pills, no coffee, and some oj and already I feel better.  Probably won't be 100% until next week, but I'm good.

Easy run

6.1 miles with Andy.  42:00.

Splits of 7:00, 6:47, 7:44 (trail uphill), 6:37, 6:39, 6:32, :38. 

Felt pretty terrible for most of it.  But it's a run.  Think my iron levels must be low.  I'll start taking some more today.  usually that's the problem.

Fighting the Thalassemia minor is tough enough.  That keeps my normal hemoglobin levels under the normal range as it is.  When my iron gets low and I get iron deficiency anemic as well then all I want to do is sleep like I have been doing the last week.  Plus my runs suffer badly which they have all week.  I'll take the iron this week, then next week when I get back from Lexington go get my blood checked to make sure it's going up.  I usually take one iron pill a day, but when it's low I need to take 3.  So three it is for the next week, no coffee, other than before the race, and my levels should be good by next weekend. 

The trick is no caffeine because that blocks iron absorption.  Taking the iron with a glass of orange juice helps the iron absorb.  In 2012 when my hemoglobin levels were down to about 10 I, my absorption rate was less than 10%, so only 10% of the iron I was taking was being put in.  After cutting the coffee, and taking the iron with orange juice my absorption levels went up to 30% which is the normal value and my hemoglobin levels went up to about 14.7 which is the highest they had ever been and I felt super great.  15-18 is the normal range, but with the Thal. Minor, I'll never get into the normal range. 

The good thing is this is an easy fix.  And it doesn't take too long before I have so much energy that I'm wound up super.  And knowing the signs early is good.  If I had to guess my hemoglobin level is probably around 11, which is really low.  But by the end of the week it will be 13 at least.  Couple of weeks I can get it close to 15 and I'll feel like superman.  Doctors actually say they can give me EPO to get my levels into the normal range, but I'd feel like I was cheating if I did that, so I'll get up as best I can and deal with that.

Most people with Thal. Minor never know they have it because most people who have it don't train like I do.  But I'm not allowed to race in hot conditions( I ignore that one), or at altitude.  My cells can actually sickle if I run hard in the heat or altitude and I might have to have surgery as a result.  Done a lot of research on it and the doctor I saw when I was training in North Carolina had a lot of information about it that helped.   

5-k tomorrow

Alright,  going to get in an easy run today.  Tomorrow's plan for 5-k is to run the first 1-k really hard to simulate how xc race next week will go out.  Then I'm going to try and run the rest of the race tomorrow at 5:15-5:20 pace which is the pace the lead pack at xc will probably be running at most of the race.  Course tomorrow is rolling hills.  With about half a mile to go tomorrow, there is one big hill which should help see where my fitness is at.

Although the workout didn't go super great at the track the other day, I've been a little tired as of late, thus taking yesterday off.  It was still a good workout, I was just a few seconds off my planned splits.  My biggest goal is to rest up this week.

Easy bike

First day off from running in a few months.  Wanted to see how this would work the day after a workout and plyometic/lifting session.

Did 30 minutes on the bike with quick cadence being the theme. 

Easy run tomorrow with Andy, then 5-k race sunday morning. 

Still got over 55 miles for the week, with the day off today.