AZ Run Dad

Solid race for me today. We were here on vacation and found this race online and it turned out to be a good one. They have an elite division and give some good prize money so the field was very competitive for both men and women. The course is and out and back along the Pacific Coast Highway in Encinitas, California. If you are ever in the area in early February I would recommend this race. The course starts out with a slight uphill for the first mile then a big downhill the second mile, flattens out for 3-4, back up for 4-5 then you get a slight downhill back towards the finish. It is not a negative split course because the big hill is in the second half. 

I was in the elite corral and everybody got out pretty quick. I felt like I was in last or close to last right from the beginning. I opened with a 5:32 first mile into a decent headwind and felt a little labored so I slowed down just a little. Even with the big downhill  my next mile was 5:42 but I think that made my race. The course flattened out near the turnaround and I was starting to feel pretty good. Mile 3 was 5:41. When we flipped I started to pick it up and start picking off some runners. Mile 4 was 5:33 and the headwind was now a tailwind. I was starting to feel really good as we headed back up the big hill. I ran mile 5 in 5:32 and was still feeling great. I ran the last mile in 5:18 and passed a couple more people down the stretch. I ended up running 17:25/16:49 which isn't supposed to happen on this course but I guess I ran it well. It looks like I had the 5th or 6th fastest 2nd 5k by looking at the results. I finished 15th and was well under the 35 min barrier I was hoping to break. I feel like I'm in a good spot heading into the meat of Boston training. Today was 1:53 faster than my 10k on Thanksgiving which is nice to see. I cooled down 6 mileswith my wife Allison who returned to racing after a long injury season. She ran the 5k in 18:10 and was 4th. Time for a beer and some football to finish off this vacation. Not bad!

Splits: 5:32, 5:42, 5:41, 5:33, 5:32, 5:18, 56 sec for last .2.

AM: 8 miles easy with Allison in Carlsbad. We started in the dark at 5:00 so we could beat traffic. Nice run and legs feel great.

PM: 4 miles back at home.

AM: 8 miles around the neighborhood.

PM: 5 miles including 5 x 9 sec hill sprints all out

AM: 11.5 miles with 8 x 1k on the track with 200 jogs. Splits were 3:22-3:25. Felt good and completely in control. Good workout coming off the race. Not too hard but definitely working. We had four people in our group and 6 total at the track at 5 am. Perfect way to start the day.

PM: 4.25 miles at the park on the way home from work including 4 strides in the grass.

12 miles around the neighborhood a bunch of times. Body feeling good.

22 mile long run on the Phoenix Marathon course: Met some people at the 16 mile point and got  a ride up to the top. I ran alone but that's what I was planning on so no big deal. I ran the first 12 at a moderate effort and felt really good today. Going down the hills felt much better today than when I did this a few weeks ago. First 12 were probably about 6:40 pace. After 12 I went straight  into 6 x 1 mile with 1 min jogs in 5:47, 5:46, 5:43, 5:43, 5:44, 5:45. Those felt pretty good but the last one was tough. I jogged another 1/2 mile then did two miles in 5:59, 5:48. I cooled down until I hit 22. The end of the run was tough but I felt really good today and this was meant to be hard. I like the fact that I felt a lot better handling the downhill today. 6:25 pace for the whole run.