wednesday
10 miles nice easy in the park on another cool overcast day. The legs were still a little tired and sore from Sunday’s half, so while the pace was easy, the pacing was tough. Speaking of the Buffalo Half, looks like they’ve finally made the results official, with the initial masters male winner being the winner. Whatever they/he needed to verify was verified. Congrats to him, in the 40-44 AG, ran a 1:10, a terrific time! And I’ll gladly take the 2nd masters place.
wednesday
Jumped into a 5k, in my own neighborhood, my son ran it as well, we’ve done this race for many years, his last before heading to college. Great fun, this race is known for a terrific post-race party with exceptional craft beer from Buffalo’s Flying Bison Beer Co. Was hot and humid but not insanely so. A good night for all, my son placing 2nd in the 15-19 group and my placing first master.
For a local race, it’s gotten competitive over the years, a couple of recently graduated elite runners came in to race along with the usual suspects.
The healing left foot hung in there, did not go beyond soreness. No limping afterwards! Still not 100% for sure, but very encouraging. Trying to run even paced and not aggravate the foot too much, went through the 1st mile in 5:25 and finished in 17:26, 9th overall. Considering the trials of the past month, very happy with the results. And well rewarded with the terrific party afterwards!
They came, they saw, they… my son’s team lost today’s xc meet to their rival high school, it actually wasn’t as close as expected, pretty decisive. But so very proud of him and his teammates, they ran very hard and took the results very well. The other team has a great tradition and a respected long time coach. No shame in this loss.
The main thing is my son still loves running and looks like he’ll keep doing it in one form or another past high school. That was great to hear.
Then I went and had a great track workout with the club. 3 x mile, with a lap jog rest between each mile. The miles were in 5:38, 5:40, and 5:19 – the last one felt terrific. Even the weather resembled the forecast for Sunday’s half marathon – cool, breezy, light showers. A great exclamation point with the last workout before the race.
friday
This off-season streak of terrific runs continued today with a 10 miler around the park on the golf course and trails. It was somewhat warmer than it had been the past week, so less layers meant lighter strides on grassy and dirt surfaces. I going to try to stay on grass and trails more consistently the rest of the year, thinking ahead to this fall’s cross country races and getting the body accustomed to running on xc terrain. I had forgotten how different it is to race on trails. This is what I used to do almost unconsciously in high school and college – run on grass and trails the majority of the time, and the roads were an afterthought…
running in t shirt 