10K Tune-Up

Well, now that all the longer races that favor strength runners like me are over, it's back to the shorter stuff and a renewal of my struggle against the monkey that often gets on my back during races of those distances. I haven't raced anything shorter than a marathon since Thanksgiving Day, and haven't had a really good short distance effort since July, when I went 18:37 at the Lunar Rendezvous 5K. This weekend Brian King and I are heading down to Angleton to run the Spectacle Spectacular. It will be the sixth consecutive year I've run it. I always look forward to it and go in with big expectations, given that it comes just after all the fall training when I should be in peak form. But I'm usually disappointed. Maybe this time will be different - we'll see.

I had intended to do speedwork last night but got a late start. It wasn't until about 8:15 PM that I was able to run and by then the enthusiasm for speedwork was gone. So I headed over to my old subdivision for an aggressive tempo on the 6.2 mile route. I didn't plan to go all out like I've done in the past just prior to a 10K but I wanted to go at 80-90% effort.

The weather was cooperative and I listened to the Aggies play Baylor in basketball. I kept trying to calculate how much time would be left in the game when I finished. Little did I know that the game would go FIVE overtimes and I'd be in bed watching the end of the 10 PM news before it was over (the Ags couldn't make free-throws and lost their third game in a row).

I did a 20:48 going out and felt fine. I typically run a negative split but the wind was in my face for much of the return. I still managed a 19:42 negative split and felt great. The total time was 40:30 and I'm not sure I'll be able to shave two minutes off that time Saturday or even 1:30 but I'm gonna throw it all out there and see what happens. Wish me luck.