1st overall, 2nd annual Flight of Vicarious 5k with a horrid 18:15 or something. 1 mile cool down then 2 x 1 mile on the Betzwood, first mile 5:42, 2nd mile 5:33 which both felt insanely easy. 6 miles on the books. 85 miles in 6 days. ---------------------------- It was some combination of no field, a new route this year that had my first mile at 6:00 and in 5:10-type oxygen debt, 100 hairpin turns, and my caution while jumping Tarzan-style across streams and up strange single-track paths with exposed roots for handles, that probably led to this crap for a time. But I suppose I could have run faster had I done striders beforehand. I'll have to remember that for my next race. I keep forgetting that pre-race striders beget low 16-minute 5ks and 4:30 1600s. Afterwards, I linked up with friends Josh and Joe who happened to be at the Betzwood for a 6 x 1 mile workout and skipped the bauble extravaganza in its entirety. I had to cut the workout short to pick up Josie. All-in-all I guess it was better than sleeping in; it was a small, forgotten race, moving relatively fast, on tired legs. ---------------------------- The new Brooks T-4s are magnifique. ---------------------------- More important things. My entire family got to dress up recently. ---------------------------- Introspection upon taper. I obviously haven't run VCM yet, but I already know where I haven't trained properly and where I have. Too much: 7:00-7:30 pace garbage runs, runs to hit mileage. Too little: 2 mile repeats, MP training (I failed big time here and will start next training cycle on this largest weakness), sub 6 sustained training, hills, run and workout differentiation. Just right: progression runs, quarters, 1k repeats, mileage, racing, continued running with minimal or no recovery between days. --------------------------- Take note Florida runners: do quarters for this reason. --------------------------- More random thoughts: - I recently read this interview and found this quote worth posting: "MR: I’ve been to Iten, Kenya, and have run with Augustine Chore [who defeated Mottram at the Commonwealth Games in March]. I couldn’t believe how slow we were going on recovery runs. Do you do that? CM: We always run slowly. That’s why you have your [hard] sessions. Recovery runs are just that—recovery runs." I've toyed with experimenting with recovery under perhaps some foolish notion that good marathoners with established bases train for their final 10 miles or so by pushing tired legs and training tired legs to go on. Like a waffling Reagan Democrat, I'm not sure where I stand on recovery. Mottram is a shorter distance guy and his track sessions are so brutal that I would think that easy-pace recovery would be needed. Along these lines, I've recently re-read the detailed logs of a 2:21 guy I'm thinking post VCM of having the following staples...again, this is pure brainstorming and may change: - 1 track workout per week, working the majority at 5k goal pace maybe considering doing MP repeats on the track. - 1 tempo run per week. All tempo will be purely marathon pace and will be worked up to increasing distances - 1 recovery run per week done after the track workout or whatever the hardest workout is. Recovery = Iten pace. - 1 long run > 20 miles per week - 1 day of hills - 1 progression run down to threshold - 1 day of garbage (6:55-7:20 pace) And then there's the caveman shit. I caveman thing per month or every other week.