Cavedog Running

Week four down. 70 miles completed in 6 days of training. After 3 straight weeks without a day off, I took a break Monday and pretty much did nothing on MLK Day except grill steak.

Maybe it was the day off, but the legs actually felt a little heavy on Tuesday's 90 minute run. Wednesday's Fartlek was fun running for an hour with several 10 second pickups that varied in pace from sub-5K to half-marathon pace. Felt better as the week went on running better Thursday and Friday. Did two runs on Saturday with an hour run in the morning with a stride workout of 6 X 200m in the evening.

Sunday's long run was awesome. Pretty chilly out as the temperature was 28 degrees when I started. I decided to run in Dade City following the Dade City Half Marathon course. Had a beautiful moon to light the way and a clear star filled sky. I have driven on these roads since I was little and know how big the hils are, but wanted to get a feel for running them. Know what, they are big! When I saw the course map for this race, I thought the organisers were crazy. The course will be a challenge for me, but I fear for those who run the race not knowing what they are in store for and/or not trained for it. This is definitely not a course for beginners. I will be curious to see how many people are ready to quit at mile 3 after they have already run a couple hills and have the big PHCC hill staring at them. This hill is long and steep with a 7% grade. For "Edward Scissorhands" fans, this is the hill where the castle that Edward lived in was built and filmed at. When they were filming, the hill would be lit up like a Griswold Christmas.

After you hump over that hill, you get a little downhill before some rolling hills. Then you get to come back up turning up Frazee Hill which goes a little higher but isn't quite as steep. The downside of Frazee Hill is a trip (potentially literally). It is steep on the way down. I was going 5 1/2 minute mile on the way down without trying. You can barely stop yourself. I ended my HM course preview by turning around at Powerline Rd. as going further takes you into the not so nice part of town and the course is generally downhill from there on. Of course, I then had to go back up Frazee Hill. From here, it was back down PHCC Hill, up Ramsey Rd, and down St. Joe Rd. into town. Totaled over 15 miles for this run in 2 hours. I checked the time at 13.1 miles and it was 1:42, not bad for a training run. Overall, 7:45 pace for the whole run. The course I had covered at that point was harder the the HM course so I expect somewhere around a 1:30-35 for the actual race.

I am well on my way to covering over 300 miles this monthe as I already have 244 done. 8 more miles and I will beat my miles record for a month.

This weekend starts a busy few weeks. The Kumquat Festival 5K is this Saturday in Dade City followed the next weekend by the Dade City Half marathon. Then a week off from racing before the Bolt Run and Gasparilla races. Will be a demanding February for sure!