Wednesday 5/28 - Pick Ups

Roller coaster day. Weather was 50 and rainy all day which doesn't do much for running motivation, and my training plan had today marked as 12 miles with pick ups. I was on the fence about the run all morning while I thought about it at work. I was trying to summon the right frame of mind to be ready for it when I got home, and I was failing pretty horribly. Around noon, I had all but decided to move the pick ups to Thursday and just run a normal 10 miler today. Then, I randomly came across the perfect motivation at lunch. I had read all the usual blogs I keep up with, so I started down the rabbit hole to see if I could find anything interesting. A race recap of the 2013 J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge completely changed my faltering determination. It's been almost a year since I've been healthy for a race, and the excitement to race just hasn't been there. Don't get me wrong. I want to race. I'm looking forward to it. I just haven't had those pre-race butterflies caused by nervous excitement which isn't unusual considering my first race is still at least over a week away, but out of no where, that feeling of pre-race jitters and adrenaline hit me today........ while sitting at my desk reading a blog at lunch haha. One of Jim Johnson's recent blogs mentioned the races he's won with the most entrants. That topic got me thinking about the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge which I will finally be running in this June after failing to get a spot for the last 2 years, and with 12,000 entrants, it will be, by far, the biggest race I've ever competed in. So when I came across a blog talking about the race and all the jostling for position at the start, it got my adrenaline pumping, or as Patrick Rich might put it, it made me want to set some land speed records ;D.

I started off with 2 miles at normal training pace then got into 10 x 1 minute on and 1 minute off. The pace for the on sections was a little under 5, and I tried to keep the off pace to normal training pace. I felt pretty good throughout the pick ups without really straining. Splits for those 4 miles were 5:16, 5:13, 5:03(wind aided), 5:14. After that, I turned around on my out/back route along the Charles and plugged away at 6:0X pace for the last 6 miles. My stomach was a bit upset during that stretch, and my legs felt tight towards the end. Overall, great run though. 12 miles in 69:05.