Ultimate Warrior training week 2: Day 2 and 3

Tuesday mileage- 1ish
Wednesday mileage- 3.67
Week to Date mileage- 6.67

I have gotten lazy in my posts lately and have not been as consistent as I should be.
Day 2 was a rest day and thus all I did was go out to where the race is going to be on Saturday and attempt to scope out the course. I was going to jog the entire thing, but made a bad judgement call. I drove to where the starting line was and assumed where the streets were that the course followed, boy was I wrong. I ended up running a good half mile outside of town. It was 103 out and I wasn't feeling it. It totally ruined me for any kind of running that evening. I was ready to get back to town and drive home.

I ended up jogging and walking some additional streets in the area and to no avail. I finally got in my car and found the right street that the course goes down and drove the course. It is going to be quite a bumpy and interesting course. An awesome long downhill at the beginning and then some long, gradual hills throughout. I don't know how fast this course will be, but I would love to run a very fast time...My time in Tulsa was 25:40....I am going to go out on a limb and push myself for a goal of 23:00...I know I can do it. I last ran that fast in July of 2006, one of my last road races and last times to run in the last 5 years....It's time to get a PR for my new age division 35-39. I have got to find someone to pace with and stay with them no matter how much it hurts. I think if I can push myself like that, then I will be fine...I finally broke a bad habit last race...I didn't get off to my normal jack rabbit start. Usually when the gun sounds, I take off in the leaderpack and get out in front of the slower runners. This time, I was in the middle of the pace and it took a bit before I crossed the starting line which hurt my time by probably 5-10 seconds. I did keep a good pace throughout and finished strong.

This weekend, I want to start off faster and cover more ground more quickly. Instead of starting off slow and running an average pace, I want to hit the first 1k or so hard and then if I hit the wall I have some wiggle room to work with on my time and distance...I found while training for the Summer Assessment Challenge that when I started off fast for my timed 12 minute run, that I was able to cover more distance in a shorter amount of time and then I could wind down at a slower pace and still finish ahead of my goal.

So I will try my best to get a good start and carry it all the way through the course.

Yesterday's workout consisted of running 8 x 300's. It was a speed workout intended to help strengthen me during the middle stages of a race. It is usually the middle where we all slow down and so instead of running a full 400, they shortened it so we are running faster in the latter parts of the distance. I ran a 1 mile warmup and a .67 warmdown before the treadmill shut down and cleared my data. I finished with 3.67 yesterday...definitely a decent workout.

Today's workout is set to be 2 miles. It is supposed to be a hard 2 miles, but I will make it more of a slower pace to stretch out and get the blood flowing and get some mileage in. We will see how it goes.