Long Run 90 minutes ~11.58 miles

Ran with my friend at slower than 8 minute pace.

Height 5k - 15:40 PR 2nd Overall

First of all I'd like to huge props to my coach, Sean Wade, for turning in a huge performance today. He, with pacing provided by Luis, ran a 14:49 road 5k! This age grades to about a 93% performance (Maybe #1 Master in the country). If he remains healthy, he is going to have a huge year.

I woke up today at the appropriate time but for some reason I was dragging. Before you know it I was rushing to get to the race. I arrived a little late and I got less than a mile warm up in. Sean asked me why I was late. I couldn't really give him a good answer. He told me to go out slower, at 5:05 pace. I told him I was going to go out at 5 minute pace and just see what happens. There were quite a few fast guys and gals. My training partners, Sean, Luis, and new partner Sam were there, along with others like Vaughn Gibbs.

After the usual pre-race ceremonial routines were finished the gun sounded and we were off. Luis and Sean took off ahead of everyone else. I knew what the game plan was for them today. Luis would bring it out to 2 miles for Sean at about 9:30. This would place him in good position to go sub 15. Depending on how Luis felt he would drop out or continue on. Knowing this, I figured the real race would be for 2nd place. My main rival was Vaughn, but there was another guy I didn't recognize who started out pretty strong. I believe his name was Paul Riley. Luis and Sean had started building a nice lead and Paul was in third place with me about 3 seconds off of him and Vaughn about a second off of me at a half mile. I finally caught Paul at 3 quarters of mile and Vaughn was right behind me. I finished mile 1 at 5:01.

Mile 2 was pretty uneventful. I was moving along, maintaining pace with Vaughn still behind me. Somehow I had the feeling Vaughn was pacing off of me because he was right behind me the whole time. This was a little different than usual because usually I'm chasing guys down. Nonetheless I maintained my pace for the most part. Sean and Luis were way ahead and later I found out they had a 2 mile split of 9:28. I finished mile 2 at 5:02 pace with Vaughn still right on my tail.

At mile 3 I was slowing pretty significantly. I was running in the 5:07 range and was struggling trying to run any faster. Shortly after the completion of mile 2 Luis had dropped out. He accomplished his goal of getting Sean in good position to hit his target. Meanwhile I was in the unfamiliar position of doing a race with positive splits. I just held on for the remainder of this mile. I looked back and I could see that Vaughn was about 10 seconds behind me. I finished mile 3 at 5:06 pace. Which amounts to hang on pace for me. I picked up the pace a little bit when I saw the clock ticking at 15:30 and finished the last .1 in 31 seconds for a total time of 15:40. Basically a 3 second PR. Sean and I expected for me to hit the 15:3x mark but it wasn't a total lost cause. Vaughn finished right behind me at 15:50.

5k Splits

Mile 1	5:01
Mile 2	5:02
Mile 3	5:06
Last .1	4:42 (31 secs)
Total Average Pace	5:03

I feel I could have run at least a 15:35 if I had warmed up properly and ran the race the way I normally run it. But I'm happy I at least PR'ed once again. So it's back to the drawing board again as I don't know when my next race will be.

Maybe I need to get used to finishing in 2nd place as its happened 4 races in a row now.

3 Miles Easy, A New Partner, Race Time

I did 3 miles easy today and guess what? I did it with my new 405 Garmin. You know...I think I really could fall in love with this thing. Give me a few days. I still need to get used to the bezel (touch pad type interface). When you are in a relationship for 2.5 years (Garmin 305), you get used to their habits(interface). I don't know, the 305 had a lot of features that I used so I will reserve my final judgement. Currently I have my 305 sulking in the corner. If the 305 had kept doing its job we probably never would have parted.

As far as race preparation is concerned I'm feeling pretty good physically. I did 3 miles at 6:43 pace. I didn't record my mile lap splits because I didn't figure out how to do that until after my run. But I looked down a couple of times and I saw that I ran 6:56 pace after mile 1 and somewhere in mile 2 or 3 I was running 6:20 pace. Physically, this is probably the best I have felt before a race since right before the Rockets 5k. All physical indicators are pointing to a good race, but you never know until race day. One thing that I'm sort of nervous about is me not figuring out the Garmin 405 on race day. I believe I set up the mile lap splits correctly, and the "lap pace" in the data fields correctly, but you never know. Also, I may press some wrong buttons under pressure. The 305 is just so ingrained in my head! Oh well, I'll probably figure it out, no big deal. It's just me trying to find something to worry about.

6 Miles Easy And A Pending Breakup

I did 1 mile at 7:01 pace when my Garmin said "Nope, I'm not going to work anymore". So I ran the remaining 5 miles Garminless. I'm pretty tired of my Garmin's shennanigans and pretty soon I'm going to put him out of work. I'm going to need a reliable Garmin for this week's race and the workouts next week so I'm probably going to kick my current Garmin to the curb. It's a shame. We've had this relationship for 2.5 years. But all good things must come to an end. Currently I have been eyeing some of the newer hotter Garmins and I give no apologies for having a wandering eye. When me and my Garmin first met, it was a reliable workhorse. It would do anything and everything for me. Now that it's gotten comfortable it only works when it wants to. So goodbye Garmin 305, our relationship is probably over.

6 Miles Easy

Hot, muggy, but I didn't feel too bad. Especially since I was only doing 6 miles today. For the first time in a long time, no aches or pains. Knock on wood.

Mile 1	7:21
Mile 2	6:52
Mile 3	6:54
Mile 4	6:47
Mile 5	6:51
Mile 6	6:42
Total Average Pace	6:55

Fartlek - 8.8 Miles total

Today was a pretty fun workout. Sean and Luis were there as usual. But this time we had a new guest, Sam Rodriguez. Technically Sam has known Sean and Luis longer than I have so I probably shouldn't be calling him a guest. Nevertheless it was good having him join in.

Today I had a major break through as far as fartleks are concerned. My previous best around the Memorial park loop was 16:21. I shattered that time with a 15:44. I really don't know what to make of the time. When I did the 16:21 and the 16:22 I ran the 15:46 5k last Saturday. My fartleks have always been 30-60 seconds slower than my 5k times. So I'm not sure if this still holds true or my body has just figured fartleks out. Either way I believe that this signals a big change in my body. I still had trouble maintaining a respectable recovery time, but the big difference was my fast times were a WHOLE lot faster than before.

4:49, 5:51, 4:59, 5:26, 4:55, 5:40, 4:57, 5:48, 5:07, 5:33, 5:05, 5:39, 5:11, 5:29, 4:58, 5:47, 4:53, 6:00, 5:30, 6:07, 4:39, 6:11, 4:52, 6:02, 4:50, 6:07, 4:52, 5:53, 4:47, 5:51, 4:32, 4:14

Time 15:44

Pace 5:17

6 Miles Easy

7:20 pace. Tomorrow fartlek with Sean, Luis, and Sam Rodriguez.