Steady as she goes – making progress.

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Due to travelling and my current running I didn’t run the MDRA 15k this year, but here are my thoughts on last year’s race. As part of my World Vision series I wrote about their financial capabilities. We all yearn for the Olypmics and the hype and greatness that they often bring.  Last year was the summer Olympics.  I reflected on the opening ceremony. Foto Friday was of Kirk running the MDRA 15k.

Last Year’s Mileage

Run: 40.0 Miles
Bike: 52.2 Miles
Swim: 400 Yards

This Week’s Training

We finished traveling on Monday arriving home in time for a meeting and tutoring English.  Pez, one of my good friends from college was in town this week for a work-related training and then a few days vacation. On Tuesday he joined me for the Tuesday night workout with the MDRA training group.  The run was a 10 mile marathon pace workout.  Two mile warm-up, then a mile at faster than marathon pace, followed by a mile at marathon pace, and repeat.  My friend did an excellent job.  I was stupid!  I decided to go for the full 10 miles (my longest being 8 this cycle) and started off with the group on the first hard mile. Let’s just say it didn’t go very well from then on.  I quickly got dropped and was really struggling.  I stopped trying to pick up the pace.  With 3 miles to go I waited at the water stop for the next pace group to finish their drinks and tried running with them – didn’t work so well.  It was a brutal run and I was wiped out.  It was 84 and pretty humid.  As my form deteoriated in the last few miles my foot started hurting worse and worse, but felt ok the next day. Wednesday I opted for a swim doing 300 yards.  It was my first time in awhile.  On Thursday Pez and I ran at Pike Island, where we saw 4 deer and only 2 other people and their dog on the actual island.  By the time we got out in the afternoon it was 84 and humid.  At the end of the run it started sprinkling.  It was a good run, but I felt like our pace was faster than what the watch showed – 4 miles in 31:47.  Pez also managed to lock us out of the house.  No running on Friday.  Saturday morning was to be the first 20 miler of the training cycle.  Pez opted to do the whole thing and did great.  We thought ahead and given my current mileage we dropped a car off near the turn around spot of the out and back run.  I ended up running 11 miles at an easy pace with the “tailfin” group of 4. It was 72 and humid for the run that took 1:34 to complete.  I enjoyed a nice dip in Lake Calhoun afterwards.  With my mileage bump as planned I didn’t run on Sunday.

This Week’s Mileage

Run: 24.9 Miles
Bike: 5.0 Miles
Swim: 300 Yards