Race week!

Monday: 4.3 mi, paved trail (Lakewalk)
Tuesday: 4.2 mi, paved trail (Lakewalk, 6×400 @ 9:51 average)
Wednesday: 2.9 mi, road + trail (Chester Bowl)
Thursday: rest
Friday: rest
Saturday: 13.5, trail (RACE!)
Sunday: rest
Total: 25.2 mi

I took it easy this week, obviously. I only did a little bit of running on unpaved trails, and the Chester Bowl trails aren’t exactly technical. It was a little bit chilly Monday when I ran on the Canal Park end of the Lakewalk (I’ll be going there more frequently now as I like the path, the tourist season is basically over, and parking is free again), but I was more bundled up than usual, wearing long sleeves and tights. It was actually misting but I wasn’t bothered that much. The wind was a bit strong at times but I was planning on going slowly anyway so I didn’t care if it slowed me down.

Tuesday I probably ran a little too hard. 9:51 average pace for repeats the week of a race? Yeah maybe that works for non-slow people. That’s over a minute faster than my 5K pace. Although between that workout and the fast-ish end of the race I threw down (11:40 over the final half mile or so), I’m excited to see what I can do in a 5K. I felt fine after the race, except I got back to Brighton Beach in the dark. Time to invest in a headlamp, or plan better.

Wednesday I tried out a couple of pieces of gear I’d purchased. I was worried about getting cold so I bought some over-the-calf socks and some old man gym-teacher style tube socks to use as arm warmers. I wanted to try both pieces out to see how they’d work. The socks (the ones I wore on my feet, I mean) didn’t chafe and felt fine but they didn’t stay up. They were around my ankles pretty quickly, which also happened during the race. So much for keeping my calves warm and protected from itchy grass. The arm warmers worked fine, but I chickened out and wore a long-sleeved shirt on Saturday, which was dumb.

The race, I already covered.

Sunday I felt ok, but my hips and knees were achy. In fact, it’s 3 days after the race now and I’ve just finally started to feel like I’m not lurching around looking for my oil can like the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz. I have a massage scheduled for tonight and then I plan to start running again tomorrow. I’m trying to get my watch charger replaced and my heart rate monitor fixed, and then I can start really working on my base-building for next year.