At least you’ve got something to fall back on

MIssion accomplished.  I went to the Crim 10 miler in Flint to run 5 minute miles which is about marathon race pace. When the gun went off I jumped in with the massive pack of Africans that bolted off the line.  The competitive juices were flowing for a few minutes when reality hit and I knew that I didn’t want to risk blowing up at this race. (In races that aren’t marathons I should probably risk more than I do, but that’s another story…).  I cruised through the first mile in 4:40 a little bit behind the lead pack.  After that I pretty much just ran between 4:56-5:06/mile depending on the topography.  

I ended up with a 49:42 (4:58/mile or 3:05/km) for 10 miles (16.1km) and felt in control the whole way.  That placed my 14th and the winner went 45:55, it’s a good race. The purpose of this race was to get in a solid effort to jumpstart training and gauge my fitness.  I came away from this race with what I wanted, plus a sweet finishers medal! haha

Before I ran STWM in 2010 and 2011 I raced the Acura 10 miler in the summer.  On both occasions I recorded a 48:mid in the middle of marathon training.  Being a minute back from this type of performance eight weeks out from STWM ’13 I made up my mind that I won’t be racing STWM this year.  Instead I’ll pace the leaders and focus on racing another marathon later in the season.

When I broke my collarbone on June 3rd I knew it would be an uphill battle to be ready for STWM this fall.  However I used STWM as my motivation to cross-train on the bike. I wishfully hoped that my bike fitness would have a seamless transition to running and I would be back into marathon training at the end of July.  That was far from the case and by the end of July I had a good feeling that STWM wasn’t in the cards.  After tracking my progress for a couple of more weeks I was pretty certain I would change my focus to a later marathon but I still waited to see how Crim went to make it final and public.

It’s a shame I won’t be racing STWM this fall as I was really looking forward to it but given my injury it just isn’t worth going after a marathon unless I’m fully prepared.  The good news is that I’ve turned the corner in training and looking forward to the Oasis Zoo Run 10km in September and pacing the leaders at STWM.  Hopefully I can confirm my next marathon soon.

We’re still making slight modifications to VICSYSTEM to render the site more user friendly.  The brains behind the training system are amazing, Eric and I are confident in the training programs it computes but the site itself still has some cleaning up to do.  Bear with us but if you’re looking for an online coach VICSYSTEM is more than ready to deliver all the workouts you need.