Columbus Training Week 6: Plus a Liberty Mile

      Another week has gone by and I am another week closer to the Columbus Marathon.  This weeks training was a little altered due to the Liberty Ave. Mile. 

MONDAY:  I ran 5 miles at 8:03 pace. I did a course that was fairly easy with only a few hills. I once again was working on form and stride.

TUESDAY: I decided on a harder course and ran 6 miles.  I finished with a pace of 8:30. One thing I noticed this day was when I started I felt as if it was going to be a really bad day. My legs were tight and my head just wasn't into the run.  I thought I was moving so slow.  When I finished and looked down at my Garmin I was pleasantly surprised to see I ran it in a decent time. I also picked up speed through out the whole run.

WEDNESDAY: SPEED WORKOUT:  I am not sure what got into me this day but I felt unstoppable on the track.  I was doing 800 meter repeats with a one lap walk in between.  My average time was a 2:35 and I ended up doing 5 of them before switching into 400 meter repeats. My average time on these was a 1:15.  I ended up doing 5 of them.  I finished the workout with 3 600 meter repeats at a sprint speed.  When I finished I felt like I could do so much more, but the sun was setting and I had already spent a good amount of time on the track so I decided to call it quits.

THURSDAY: With the Liberty Mile the next day I decided to go to the gym and cross train rather than kill my legs.  I rode the bike for 3 miles followed by some AB workouts and some machines that work on your hips. 

FRIDAY: THE LIBERTY MILE: I finished work at 4:30 and decided to I would go meet my cousin Chris (@chrismith6944) at his work since we both work right near downtown.  We walked into town and sat around for a half hour or so going over the course.  We both noticed that the start on Penn Avenue would be a slight up hill for the first half. Nothing major but for someone who was inexperienced this could screw them up.  This was Chris's first time running a mile race.  I told him take it out at a pace he was used to and then once he got around the half way point see what he had left and explode.  He wanted to run under 9 minutes. He also wanted to be the person who didn't eat shit as he put it (falling down while running).  At around 5:30 we walked over to Market Square to check out what was going on and too pick up our friend Anna's packet to save her some time.  While there we ran into Jennifer and her husband Dave. It was finally nice to meet them both and they are really cool people.  We also ran into Chelsea and all were going over our goal times.  It seemed like they were all going for right around the same time.  After meeting Anna we headed to the start to do some stretching and warming up. We ended up also taking some pictures at the start and running into everyone again.  I said my goodbye and headed to the front of the race.  I was shooting for a sub 6 minute mile.  When the gun sounded I took off and felt really comfortable. I tried to keep my head down and not look at who was around me. I was also trying not to look at the turn around.  From the start you could see the turn around and it didn't look far but in reality it was a half mile away.  Once you made the turn onto Liberty you could see the finish, but it too was a half mile away. I was afraid I would look up and start running too fast too early.  When I came up on the finish I intended to start my kick with around 200 meters left.  For some reason when I came up on the 200 meter sign I psyched myself out saying it was too far to start sprinting and held back until 100 meters.  I always kick with 200 meters left on a track so I am not sure why this threw me off.  I crossed the line in 6:01 and some change.  I finished 22nd in our race and 4th in my age group.  As I made my way to grab some water I watched everyone else cross the line. Chris came across in 7:58 and Anna in 8:15.  Everyone beat the times they set out for.  Well everyone but me, but I am fine with that. I would much rather watch other people succeed over me any day. We once again met Jennifer and Dave at the finish and we all looked like death.  Coughing, breathing funny, and some of us looked like we ran a marathon rather than a mile race. 

   This race is always one of my favorites and I am already looking forward to running it next year.  Next year I am going to put in a little more speed workout just for the mile and really try to see what I can do.  This is one race if you live in Pittsburgh or are in the area you need to do.  The crowd is awesome and it seemed like all the runners were trying to help motivate each other and feed off one another.  It was truly a great time!


SATURDAY: When I woke up my legs were in some pain. I was having leg spasm's all night and I wasn't sure how my legs were going to hold up during my run that day.  I met my friend @jstepsrun for a run.  She said she could do around 7 miles, so I decided to take her on my 7 mile hill course as I like to call it.  It is a challenging course, but if you can run it then you can do any 7 mile course.  We went out slow and slowly picked up the pace.  She did awesome keeping up and I may have fucked with her breathing by talking to her.  What can I say I like to bullshit when I run with people, makes the time go quicker.  I am looking forward to running with her again next time she is in Pittsburgh and maybe @donniebrunnin will be able to join us as well.   I planned on going back out to do some more miles later in the day but the spasm's started back up so I decided to take it easy.

SUNDAY: Today me and my wife are driving to Erie to take her friend out who lost a family member out to lunch. Some times there are more important things in life than running.  If I get home early enough I will do some core workout in my house. If it is too late then I am okay with missing a day and using it as a rest day.  There is always tomorrow!!!!

How did you do at the Liberty Mile?
How is your training for fall races coming along?