The Perfect Race

I am not sure what it means to run the perfect race. On Sunday October 20th I think I ran my smartest race possible. I did not run my fastest time and frankly I did not even seem to be racing at all. My plan going in was to stay relaxed and comfortable and test out how my body feels. Normally I fall into every trap imaginable on race day. I tend to go out to fast, race someone faster than me in the middle miles and wind up dying in the last few miles. This time was completely different. I went out and hit my first mile at 5% slower than my race pace and then slowly eased myself into a comfortably hard pace for the remaining miles. Here is what I need to work on.. At mile 11 I started to feel tired. My left hip started to get a small cramp. Easy enough to fix. My long runs were sporadic and I need to up my mileage a little bit. My plan for the next cycle is to run my easy runs at a faster pace than normal and slow my tempo and speed workouts down a bit. I feel that I have been racing my track workouts and just going too slow on my easy days.

Taper Capers

Every running cycle comes to an end. This last cycle of mine is 8 days away from completion. On the 20th of October, after a long and grueling year since breaking myself at the Chicago Marathon, I am ready to toe the line and put in a good effort. The last few months have not been easy, but I have learned how to take care of my aging body on my road to healing and growing stronger. Am I ready to race? Sure. Am I just happy to be able to run again? Exactly. I have one more cycle to go this year before I take some real time off. After I race on Sunday I am going to take a few days off from the intensity of my interval sessions and then after I feel fully recovered I am going to start the 12 week build up to the Charleston Marathon in January. The next 12 weeks will be fun. I have a training plan in mind that will hopefully keep me motivated through the cold dark days of Nov, Dec, and January. But I'm getting ahead of myself here.