Well, tomorrow is the Smelt 10 K race! I’ve been working hard to shave some time off of my mile pace and (as you’ll see below), although this has been a week of low mileage, it’s also been an encouraging one.
Sunday: Bill and I joined Marathon Man, Trent Morrow on the Birch Bay Marathon course, and I ran 9.5 miles. It was fewer miles than I’d intended to fit in, but 6 of them were at or faster than my 10K pace of 9:39/mile. I was encouraged by this. Only one year ago I ran my one-mile trial at 9:33 and finished coughing and exhausted. So I’m pretty pleased to be able to keep up a similar pace now for 6 miles not much worse for the wear! Thank you to Carol and Bill (not necessarily in that order, but… sometimes).
Monday: Off. Nothing but lallygagging on a walk with the dogs.
Tuesday: Slow three-mile run.
Wednesday: Warm up run. One mile time trial. Cool down run/walk. I’m happy to report that I ran my FASTEST mile EVER during my mile trial this week. 8:27!!! I was excited because I never imagined getting faster in my mid-forties. It isn’t consistent with my family story, which is that people get sicker and slower as they get older. Looks like it doesn’t have to work that way. What a happy relief to see that I’m improving.
Thursday: Resting. Getting ready for the race on Saturday.
Friday: Resting. Drinking water. Getting ready for the race on Saturday.
Saturday: The Smelt Run 10K. This 10K is the first short-term goal toward shaving an hour off of my average marathon time. I’ve worked hard and, rain or sh… rain, I’ll do my best to beat one hour. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Hope your running/training went well this week, friends. Keep up the good work.