Friday, September 14, 2012

Cutback Week

For runners out there who are teachers or former teachers (Michelle, Razz, I'm talking to you), how have you dealt with the first weeks of school? After averaging 80 miles a week the past two months, it's looking like I'm headed for less than 50 miles for two weeks in a row.

So, I'm taking a little sabbatical from the blog. Keep me in your thoughts as I get the wheels turning again.

Peace!


Sunday, September 2, 2012

Pace Report: The Woodbury Country Mile

This is a little late and there are no pictures, but I've been busy and apparently I'm not photogenic enough to have multiple shots of my pace group on the Woodbury Chamber of Commerce page.

Anyway, I paced this race last Saturday with the Minnesota Pacers in what I believe will be my last pacing gig of the season. In fact, I think I'm done with races until October when I go after a new PR at the Whistlestop Marathon in Wisconsin. This race was pretty low-key, there was a nice speech by the mayor of Woodbury and then we were off.

It was cloudy and 70s and also very muggy. I had a co-pacer (or maybe he had a co-pacer, I'm not sure who was in charge) for the first time. Mike was very nice and it was nice taking turns with the signs and being able to chat with someone for the whole race. Usually people in pace groups in paces between 7 and 8 minutes per mile aren't real chatty.

Mike and I had a nice race. We had a small group off and on and our last guy left us around 10 or 11 miles because he was feeling good. We did catch a girl a little later but she couldn't quite stay with us. There was one exciting moment when a guy ahead of us missed a turn and I ran ahead to catch him and get him back on the course. Turns out he saw the runners and cut through a side street to rejoin the race, and I had chased after him for nothing. Oh well.

Our final time was pretty close--1:34:29. Once we were by ourselves I think we inadvertently sped up a little, but at least we were just a little over 30 seconds too fast. A couple people thanked us for pacing and asked us about our training while we feasted on cookies, milk, and bagels. Overall it was a nice race and I had a good time doing one last event before I race a marathon.

Life's been pretty busy lately--meetings for school started this week and the kids come on Tuesday. I'm excited to start the new school year. I just hope I can keep the running going at a pretty good clip with the extra time and stress teaching brings.

I've been training pretty hard this summer. Today's my first day off in almost two months. My body's tired and my foot's been a little sore so I thought today would be a good day to take a break. I was planning for the first week of school to be a cutback week anyway. I've been averaging 80 miles a week the past two months so we'll see what I can manage once school starts.