Back on Task

So when we last spoke, I was tired and struggling.  Normally, this sort of thing would be the start of a short but damaging motivational slide for me - a week of running less than I should, drinking beer and relaxing more than I should, skipping the gym, etc. - followed by a week of guilt, lamenting how no training progress had been made, and telling myself, "alright, self, don't do that again".

Well, turns out, I didn't do it again.  I took an extra day off (Saturday) to do a little volunteer work, then picked up my long run on Sunday, and hit this week just like any other.

I helped out on Saturday morning with the West Point Bridge Design Contest state championship (WV's site is here, the national contest site is here).  It is an academic contest where kids older than 12 team up and use this cool software designed by some engineers at West Point to design a bridge for a given scenario.  The bridge has to hold its own weight, and that of a passing truck.  The cheapest design is the winner.  Kids all over WV have worked on it in their spare time this spring, trying to whittle down the cost of their design to qualify for the state level competition.  At the state competition, they have a limited time period to work on a scenario which is different from what they designed for in qualifying (or, this year, they were given 2 scenarios and scores were cumulative).  In addition to all of this hard-core thinking going on, there was a fun mathy/sciency scavenger hunt-type race on Friday afternoon, just for fun, which my wife volunteered and helped out with.  I am planning to volunteer as a local mentor for Putnam county schools next spring.

My nerdyness behind me for the weekend, I set out early on Sunday morning with a rigid plan for what I needed to accomplish for the day - starting with my run.  I had a nice 10 mile run, which steadily got faster as I went on without me noticing.  I ended up averaging a little faster than 8:30 per mile, which is a good starting point for summer, and didn't really feel like I was pushing that much.  I got a little sore from it though, which tells me I did push more than I meant to.  I also have a pretty bad blister on my heel because one pair of my shoes hate me.  I hate to make such a statement so early, but I'd like to run about 7:30 per mile at the Virginia Beach Rock-n-Roll Half Marathon in September, so I need to start working on my pace over longer runs in addition to my 5k-specific training.

Speaking of 5k-specific training, Monday I got back to my 12 x 1/4 mile intervals.  I've gotten comfortable at a 6:20 per mile pace, so Thursday I plan to try to maintain a 6:00 pace through my interval workout, which I think I can handle if the blister will heal.  Today I ran in 45 degrees and steady rain.  Which sucked, but I'm happy I forced myself out to do it.  I'm pretty sore from my Monday weight lifting routine, but that will go away once I get fully back into my workout schedule.

This post has run a little long (get it, now my posts are running too!?), back to work for me.  Hopefully I'll have a short post tomorrow with an interesting story about the weight room...