The Charlotte 10 Miler is done. If I compare it to last year, I didn’t run as well. But last year I basically ran the best race of my life. Considering that, for whatever reason, I didn’t quite feel 100% during the race, I still ran pretty well. I’m still not sure what was wrong, but I’m leaning towards me just having an off day. It happens, but when an off day and a race day happen on the same day, it’s disappointing. Still, it’s a pretty mild disappointment, more like “OK, let’s get back out there and do better” than “I want to take all of my running gear, put it in a large pile, and kill it with fire.” I’ll publish my race report in the next couple of days.
When I went to update my sidebar to move the Charlotte 10 Miler to Last Race, I realized that when I had it listed under Next Race, I had the date listed as February 14. Oops. No, it wasn’t on Tuesday. My new Next Race, the Tobacco Road Half (more on that later), really is on March 19.
One more thing, I had to go back and add a note to my race report for the Charlotte Southpark Turkey Trot. I had said that I was surprised that my co-worker’s wife had won her age group, but I wanted to clarify that the surprise was that she ran the race, since my co-worker hadn’t mentioned it, not that she won her age group. She’s really fast, so I would never be surprised if she places in her age group.
Weight Check: 166.9, down exactly 1 pound from last week. I can’t say I really did anything better this week than last week. Losing a pound beats the alternative, but I really need to buckle down some more. There’s still too much Mountain Dew in my life. There was a lot of stress at work this past week, though, so I guess I could have done worse.
I forgot to mention last week that I got my annual two boxes of Tagalongs. So far, I’ve managed to limit myself to one per day. So there’s that.
| Day | Total Miles |
|---|---|
| Monday | 6.01 |
| Tuesday | 5.01 |
| Wednesday | 5.01 |
| Thursday | 4.01 |
| Saturday | 10.0 (Charlotte 10 Miler) |
Total: 30.04 miles
I wanted to add an extra mile on Monday so I could do a shorter run closer to race day, and I succeeded. My legs weren’t excited to climb the really big hill in my neighborhood (I wanted to tell them, “Wait till you see Mile 9 of the Charlotte 10 Miler”), but otherwise, I ran pretty well with a strong finish.
Tuesday I wore my new Brooks Adrenaline GTS 17s for the first time. My legs felt kind of meh, although I don’t think it was because of the shoes. I survived.
Wednesday was my weekly treadmill run. I went a little more slowly than usual, which was more mentally excruciating than usual. Still, my legs felt better, which is generally the reason I try to get on the treadmill. (Also, it gives me time to catch up on podcasts.)
As much as I wanted to stay out with my friends Wednesday night, I went home early so I could get up and run Thursday morning. My legs felt good, and I even ran the last mile at a 9:33/mile pace, which is pretty good for me.
Saturday was the race. Like I said, I’ve got a full race report coming, but my time was 1:36:24.0. (Yes, they used tenths of a second, but I happened to finish with an even number of seconds.)
Next week, besides writing my race report for the Charlotte 10 Miler, it’s time to start getting ready for the Tobacco Road Half, one month from today. I can’t tell you how much I want to get a PR, although after last year’s race, I’d also be happy if my ankle didn’t blow up after 9.5 miles. My legs feel OK the day after my last race, but Monday will be the real test. I want to get back up to 33 miles for the week, with an 11 mile long run. We’ll see how it goes.