On Xgiving, I ran 3:03 for a half on the track. Considering that I felt poorly during the run (I didn't warm up enough) I was satisfied with the result. One interesting footnote: My younger daughter Miriam was with me. She has started doing some light running because she thinks that somebody her age and in her physical condition (she is a swimmer) should be able to run. She ran for 25 minutes and has been increasing the time she runs each day. I don't think this will lead to any competitive running for her. She has compartment syndrome and running hard is too painful.
Last week I entered a two-mile cross country race. I did this out of respect for the family of Kelly Watt and because Miriam and her friend (both attend UVa) wanted to go. Kelly was the outstanding local runner who died from heatstroke in 2005, just before he was going to start William and Mary. There were no splits given at the mile, and I didn't have a watch on (since I expected to get my mile split), but I estimate that I was at 7:00. Not too bad considering it was on grass and there were some hills. The second mile was not pretty. There were more hills, and I was annoyed at not having the mile split. Lots of people passed me and I finished in 15:06.
About two weeks ago I ran three miles on the track. As I recall my splits were 7:18, 7:28, and 7:27. I was pleased with that, because that was a drop of about 40 seconds from the week before.
3 comments:
Eric:
3:03 on the track is a nice, brisk pace. Are you still working your way down to that 6-minute mile attempt?
By the way, I made a post on the blog, and received an email with my post. If the blog is really to replace emailing, it is showing some redunancy. Next time you post something, if I get it via email first, I might be tempted to not log into the blog.....interesting predicament.
15:06 isn't bad for a 2-mile cross country race with hills. You probably recall from your cross country days that times on XC courses are typically much slower than comparable road or track races. In fact, I've found that the only ways to accurately gauge success on cross country courses is by the people you beat (of course you have to know them and their capabilities), or your time compared to previous times on that same course, under the same conditions (somewhat hard to duplicate).
I think the sub-six mile is delayed until 2008. But 2007 was encouraging in that I learned how quickly training can have an impact. With focus, and with less travel to mess up my training, I think I can break six in 2008, and start working on breaking five!
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