Kickin' With Zippy

Saturday:

Lumberjack 10 Miler, Stillwater MN.

16th place overall, and 3rd in age group. 55:03 /5:31 pace

I have run this race once before, about two or three years ago and I ran 55:02. I was a bit bummed not to break the 55 minute barrier but I was rigging many times throughout the race as I haven't been running quicker paces during my weekly running in quite some time. It was nice to have a familiar face to run with as my old teammate from Runners Edge, Jason Minnick, aka Zippy, and I ran pretty much stride for stride the entire race until he put the screws to me in the last mile and pulled me to the tape. My legs felt very fresh and fast, only thing was I side-stitched and had difficulty breathing at the quicker paces. (we had two different 5:15 mid miles during the downhill segments which just killed me)

I guess I will be happy with that as I have recovered nicely from a marathon a month ago and now will start adding some speed into the weekly volume.

I also had a nice chat with another old running mate from Duluth and the Edge, Patrick Russell, during my warm up. Nice to catch up PR!!

Totals: 55:02 race, plus warm up

13 miles for the day

Friday:

Since I have the ten miler tomorrow I decided to take it easy and just go out for an easy run with a couple of strides.

Nice to run into Chris on a summer run! We usually bump into each other during the winter on the single tracks....

Total: 31:00 4.5 miles

Thursday:

Today was an "uptempo" day and the plan called for an hour or so with 4 miles at steady state pace, which for me right now is 5:35:-5:40 pace. When I do these types of workouts I like to utilize Lakeside and their relatively flat streets. Once I got going the pace felt very comfortable and I managed to get through without too much of a strain. The last mile was a bit of an uphill grade, but no big deal.

The splits looked like this:

2.5 mile warm up

4 miles at steady-state: 5:40, 5:41, 5:44, 5:37

HR's: 151,157,160

2.5 miles warm down

Total: 1:01:19 9 miles

Wednesday:

Feeling quite good this week and this morning was an easy loop out on Arrowhead, Howard Gnesen, Rice Lake Road, and returning via Skyline.

The temps have been very comfy for the early morning hours and I should be ready for the steady state run tomorrow.

Total: 58:29 8.1 miles