It's been a while since I posted here, I have a lot of catching up to do! When I have some more free time I will go back and fill in the blanks, and probably just copy/paste my race report. Yes I did run a 3:09:04 marathon and BQ. Woot.

Today was my first long run since the race. I've been feeling pretty much fully recovered since Thursday, so I'm back to the mindset that it's business as usual here. So I set off, with the weather a little bit hotter than it has been, and much more humid, for a good 14 mile run. It went long. Here's the damage:

15.56 miles in 2:05:14 (8:02 pace)

including:
Campus loops
5.5 mi- 45:48.23
9.0 mi- 1:14:16 (28:28.64 3.5 miles)

Newark Reservoir
9.55 mi- 1:18:49 (4:32.61 0.55 mile)
9.90 mi- 1:21:55 (3:06.04 0.35 mile)
11.0 mi- 1:30:32 (8:37.16 1.1 miles)
12.1 mi- 1:38:59 (8:26.97 1.1 miles)
13.2 mi- 1:47:27 (8:27.86 1.1 miles)
14.3 mi- 1:55:48 (8:21.24 1.1 miles)
14.65 mi- 1:58:22 (2:34.14 0.35 mile)
15.20 mi- 2:02:36 (4:13.14 0.55 mile)
15.56 mi- 2:05:14 (2:38.50 0.36 mile)

I wanted very badly to take my shirt off around mile 5, but I decided to play a little game with myself and keep it on for as long as possible. Then it stopped being so damn hot around mile 9, and I headed for the reservoir where I knew I'd get a little breeze. Well, it was more than a little breeze. It was a freakin gale! As I headed over there I had made up my mind that I was gonna do more than 14, but not much more. Then around mile 12 I saw lightning off in the distance. This caused me to pick up my pace to get the hell out of there and home to safety.

I ran up the hill to my house and as I neared it I decided to tack on a little extra so I ran up to the church parking lot and went in. The wind had picked up considerably at this point. Like CRAZY wind. Felt like I was on the top of Mt. Washington, and the trees were just aching to break. I turned to head out of the parking lot and I noticed drops beginning to rain down. By the time I turned back towards my house it was all-out POURING. Torrentially! It was awesome. I finished the last ~200m, got to the porch, stripped down to my underwear and spent the next 5 minutes splashing around, getting soaked by the wonderful cool rain. It was something like a scripted end to a wonderful, hard run, and a good recovery week where I ran just about 30 miles.

This coming week and beyond...back to business as usual. Ramping the mileage up to 100/week by summertime. And in two weeks I will be reclaiming the 10k PR crown from hbfs. Happy running indeed.

Went running this morning with Alyssa. She's training for the Delaware Marathon May 17, I'm her coach. I currently have two guinnea pigs I'm training actually, and this is fun! She took me down to the zoo she works at, which is right along the Brandywine River. We ran around there for a while and then took an impromptu detour up Market St to Rodney Square (it's how the Caesar Rodney half marathon ends, and if you read my race report from it, I was NOT a fan of the hill. It didn't seem nearly as bad today). I mapped it out just before but the distance is an approximation. Here's the damage:

~4.5 miles in 47:00 (little over 10:00 pace)

We started off a bit too fast and ended up having to slow down some towards the end. But she didn't stop once on the hill and ran the whole way. We could've gone more but I had to get home for Carl's dad's wake :( This run is GORGEOUS though. I really need to come run in Wilmington far more often.

Took it easy tonight, kept the ankle wrapped, didn't want to kill myself. Went out saying EASY EASY EASY! Listened to myself for a change. Here's the damage:

5.5 miles in 43:53 (7:59 pace)

First half was slower, under 8 for the second half. Finished smooth and steady, not a burst of speed. VERY comfortable run, no ankle issues.

Today, the ankle felt even better than yesterday when I wound up having a very good run on the track in the early afternoon. The weather was nicer today but I was busy for most of it with organizing the apt and whatnot. I got out for my run well after dark, but the weather was PERFECT- probably mid to low 50s, no wind, no humidity.
My plan originally was to do a 10k, with the first 5k real easy and then the second 5k a little quicker. This plan kinda got scrapped. Here's the damage:

7.75 miles in 1:00:11 (7:46 pace)

including:
5k- 26:30.83 (8:33 pace)
6.60 mi- 52:28.40 (25:57.57 3.5 miles, 7:25 pace)
7.75 mi- 1:00:11 (7:43.12 1.15 miles, 6:42 pace)

So I started off well enough. The first 5k felt like I was in slow motion honestly. I taped up the left ankle again, and the left shoe felt a little loose, but it wasn't much of an issue. The lateral side of my left arch kinda cramped up, I suspect from the tape, which was kind of annoying at first but I stopped a few times to stretch it out and it went away after 5k.

I was very careful at first, going easy because while my ankle felt very good, I didn't want to aggravate it. It didn't get worse, in fact, everything got better as I went along (which gives me hope that this was/is NOT a stress fracture, bc the exact opposite of that is supposed to happen). The middle 3.5 miles were hilly, and I just focused on running steady. The pace got progressively faster but I felt pretty comfortable- good news! The last 1.15 miles was impromptu. I decided to run back down to Happy Harry's where my bike was locked up and bike home as my cool down. At first I thought I'd run there slow as a cool down. This clearly did not happen. Felt good, very good.

Not sure what I'm doing tomorrow, I really wanna do a longish run before the race, something like 15 miles with 10 at goal pace, just to ease my mind mostly. Maybe tomorrow I'll go actually easy, then Tuesday long run and figure it out from there. But for tonight, good run!

Also picked up some whey protein finally. I'm gonna start taking a scoop after every workout, not because I'm trying to put on mass, but I think this'll help with recovery, especially from some of the WODs and long and/or hard runs

So after my AWESOME 20 miler last week, I took 8 days off from running. EIGHT DAYS! Jeez, that was horrible. But my ankle was feeling pretty bad and I didn't wanna push it and furher injure myself. So all I've done in the past eight days is two CrossFit WODs and feel sorry for myself. That changed today. As luck would have it the CrossFit WOD was run 5k. I thought this was a perfect distance to test out the ankle. Got to the track and Curt had a few laps to go. Taped up the ankle, put my new shoes on for just the second time ever, and got onto the track. It felt pretty good, just eversoslightly uncomfortable, but I chalked most of that up to the fact that it was taped up and all. I decided I'd do the 3.25 instead and do it in about 7:16 pace. Well, here's the damage:

3.265 miles in 21:39.41 (6:40 pace)

including:
Mile 1- 6:57.29
Mile 2- 13:46.90 (6:49.61 mile)
MIle 3- 20:10.34 (6:23.34 mile)
Mile 3.25- 21:39.41 (1:29.07 quarter mile)

So yeah, wound up going much faster than I had planned on. But it felt SOOOO GOOD! And my ankle actually hurt less as I went along, which I take to be a good sign. I'm gonna see how I feel tomorrow but I'm cautiously optimistic that I'm almost back to 100% and all systems are go for the marathon (which is 14 days away!!!)

One other cool thing about today. With this run, I am now over 500 miles for 2009 so far. I was stuck on 499 for the past week+ and now I'm over it. I'm pretty sure I only managed 600 miles for all of 2007 and about 1,300 for 2008. My goal for this year was 2,500 miles, but I think I may have to readjust this. Awesome!

HOORAY RUNNING!

( And here's a picture just to illustrate how crazy this weather is- actually a little hot today, and thus my pictured running attire, but tons of snow at the beginning of the week )

So tonight I finally managed to get my 20 miler in that I had wanted to do last week but kept getting derailed by Achilles issues. Now that I had my brand new shoes and was feeling 100% I was ready to roll. I decided to do it on the James F. Hall trail because it's marked and this way I could record the mile splits for the last 5. This was different then the other 20 milers I've done during this training cycle because the last 5 were to be done at marathon goal pace (7:16). I was slightly nervous going into this, more because last year during marathon training this was one of my worst runs ever.
Tonight though I was MUCH better prepared. Here's the damage:

20 miles in 2:48:57 (8:25 pace)

including
First 15 miles- 2:14:01 (8:56 pace)
Last 5 miles- 34:56 (6:59 pace)!!

splits
Mile 3- 26:44.73
Mile 5- 45:37.30 (18:52.57 2 miles)
Mile 8- 1:11:48 (26:10.70 3 miles)
Mile 10- 1:29:12 (17:24.30 2 miles)
Mile 13- 1:55:09 (25:57.63 3 miles)
Mile 15- 2:14:01 (18:51.68 2 miles)
Mile 16- 2:21:23 (7:22.00 mile)
Mile 17- 2:28:28 (7:05.10 mile)
Mile 18- 2:35:23 (6:54.29 mile)
Mile 19- 2:42:14 (6:51.08 mile)
Mile 20- 2:48:57 (6:43.72 mile)

So yeah, I'd say I broke its face alright! I think I freaked out when I saw the first mile in 7:22 and overcompensated a bit, then just kept going. I felt great at that point though, leg and lungs wise, so I went with it.

A few things about the run though. My right shoe felt great as soon as I laced it up, but I could not for the life of me get comfortable with the left one. It just kept feeling like it was loose and slipping. I stopped a number of times to try to adjust and by the end it was way too tight but my hands were so cold that I couldn't move them to re-do the laces. Thus I wound up running most of this run with it too tight and I'm paying for it after, my ankle is sore and a bit swollen. ugh. I'll monitor the situation but tomorrow looks like just lifting and no running, I'm gonna be real careful so close to race day. My legs and lungs can probably get me across in 3:10 as long as everything is working properly.

For most of the run I was cruising along easily with no issues, although I had to stop and pee a number of times, but it didn't matter because I wasn't trying to set any records. However, right around mile 13-14, the GI issues came up again. Motherfuck. It was VERY uncomfortable and I knew as soon as I started running harder it would get worse. It did. A number of times over the last 5 miles I felt just awful and considered stopping. Towards the very end I was almost sure I was going to crap my pants...I didn't thank God but UGH x infinity :-/ I really hope this doesn't become an issue on race day, although it didn't stop me from running fast overall. Of course, dealing with 26.2 miles of this would be a different story.

Fuel wise, I stuck with Sport Beans through mile 13 (and I wonder if they were the culprit for the GI issues) downing them with water every 30-40 minutes. At mile 13 I started sucking down some Gatorade, and also had half a banana along the way.

Aside from those two things, everything went remarkably well. Sort of the exact opposite of last year, so another confidence boost. Woot. After getting home, and dealing with a bout of shakes from the cold and being wet and dehydrated, I got some food and drink in me, and massaged out my legs. Hooray for good 20 milers.

My new shoes came today! Hooray! I love the smell of new running shoes, is that strange? I feel like it's not for a runner. I wanted to do my 20 miler today but I wound up getting preoccupied and eventually decided to just do another easy run and then try it tomorrow with my new kicks. It went well considering I was just trying to get a few miles in my legs. Here's the damage:

4.07 miles in 34:34 (8:28 pace)

Ho hum. Nothing really to write home about. Got through it with no pain. I was barely breathing much heavier than just walking, these are all good signs to me. Let's see how tomorrow goes.

My shoes didn't come today, but my Achilles finally felt pretty close to 100% today so I felt like a short, easy run would be ok. I wound up doing not really doing any mapped out route, just sort of running around campus a bit, feeling good. No leg issues, no nothing. Felt strong but tried not to get carried away. Apparently I did a bit. Here's the damage:

4.55 miles in 35:02 (7:40 pace)

It felt a lot more like 8:10 pace or so, which I guess is a good sign. The last mile or so was done in ~marathon pace,I think. Good stuff.

So I decided to give the Achilles tendon another day to rest up. I ordered my new shoes, same ones as I have...New Balance 903s. Sweet, should be here in the next day or two.

I had originally planned on going to the gym and riding the recumbent bike for about an hour, but then I remembered that some people I know who rehabbed injuries liked aquajogging, so I decided to give it a try tonight. I'm glad I did, I really enjoyed it and got a great workout. Here's the damage:

1 hour of aquajogging

Took me a little bit to get used to it but once I found a rhythm I just zoned out and enjoyed it. I think I'm going to make this a regular supplement to my workouts from now on.

No running for me today

Total weekly mileage: ~40 miles (goal was 65,oh well)

Resting up this tendon

So I took off Friday because by the end of my run on Thursday my left Achilles tendon was really sore and I could barely walk without limping. It was frustrating. So I figured a day off, some ibuprofen, some ice and I'd be ok for at least an easy run today. Well I figured wrong. Here's the damage:

6.92 miles in 55:32 (8:01 pace)

I know that looks pretty good. But looks can be deceiving. It started off wonderfull. It was a beautiful day for a run when I set out around 2 pm, and everything was just fine. I actually noticed my pace, while feeling extremely comfortable, was a bit quick. I passed mile 1 in about 7:40, but honestly I felt like I was going about 8:20 pace.

Then I got to around mile 2-2.5 and things fell apart quickly. My left achilles tendon tightened up again. I tried stopping to stretch it and it helped marginally for a bit, but it came back. It slowed me down considerably. Intermittently for the rest of the run I kept stopping and stretching and cursing circumstance. I felt like I was going really slowly. When I finished my calf was pretty sore again, and I was hella pissed. I doubled check the time/distance because the pace just didn't seem right. Heh.

I know the problem is 95% definitely that I'm running in shoes that have about 150-200 miles more than they should. And the other pair I use has even more, so alternating doesn't help. I need new shoes, sometimes I hate being a poor grad student. However I think I'm going to damn my finances and go get a new pair of 903's and some Superfeet this weekend because I NEED to be at 100% to get a BQ in DC.

grumble grumble grumble

Tonight I essentially did the same run as Tuesday night, just a bit shorter and a lot slower. I was feeling pretty good after yesterday's speedwork but pretty much as soon as I started the run, my calves felt really tight. Probably had something to do with the long since overdue for a change shoes I was wearing. The 768's are long past their prime :-/ So there was a number of times on the run I stopped to stretch out my calves and also my ITB which was grumbly. For pretty much the whole run, I was having bad GI issues too, which is always annoying. Here's the damage:

9.5 miles in 1:24:19 (8:52 pace)

Definitely took it slow, stopped to pee at one point, just a meh run really, but I guess what I needed.

So today I got up early in the hopes of getting the speedwork out of the way early in the day, seeing as how dodgeball was at 6 tonight. Well I puttered around and didn't get to the track til almost 4, and I was feeling ok, not GREAT, but not awful. I was a trifle bit apprehensive about this workout, because it was a similar one to the disaster that was Sunday's treadmill workout. Also because as I looked outside from the moment I woke up I saw either snow or a mix of snow and rain and this looked miserable to run in. But I always run better outside. And by the time I got down to the track it was just drizzling slightly. When I got there, I saw a track guy running 5:20 miles by himself. I got on the track to do my mile warm-up and two more track guys came on and I was worried I was gonna be in the middle of another track team workout. I'd much rather do my track workouts in the company of no one. Fortunately they left shortly after I started, two more came a little after them but left quickly as well.

I did my warm-up, put the clothes in the car, got myself mentally ready and I was off. It went MUCH better than I could have expected. Here's the damage:

45 minutes @ half marathon pace (~6:40) w/ last 10 min @ 10k race pace (~6:20)

7 miles in 45:14.57 (6:28 pace)

including:
Mile 1- 6:31.12
Mile 2- 13:04.79 (6:33.67 mile)
Mile 3- 19:36.03 (6:31.24 mile)
Mile 4- 26:07.00 (6:30.97 mile)
Mile 5- 32:40.30 (6:33.30 mile)
Mile 6- 39:02.49 (6:22.19 mile)
Mile 7- 45:14.57 (6:12.08 mile)

So yeah, The first 5 miles were pretty evenly paced, just about 7-10 seconds faster than what I figure would be my half pace. I'm SURE I can sustain 6:40s for 13.1 miles. Maaaaaaybe I can do a little better, but I haven't raced a half in almost 2 years now. I was a little worried that because of the fast-ish pace and the weather and whatnot that I would struggle/not be able to drop the pace, but once I hit 5.75 miles, I turned it up and I could feel my legs start turning over a little faster, I could feel myself moving quicker, it was great. And not only was I able to sustain it over 7 laps, I got FASTER over them. That last mile is better than 5 mile race pace. Oh well. My feet were soaked when I was finished but nothing was bothering me. I let out a few whoops, seeing as how this is the fastest I've ever covered 7 miles, almost 45 seconds faster than just a few weeks ago. Nice! 1 mile cool down and I was out. 9 miles total

Then there was dodgeball tonight, where we won 9-5. Afterwards we went to our usual bar, Catherine Rooneys. I had planned on just stopping for a quick bite, maybe a drink, then to the gym for the Crossfit WOD, Death by pull-up. However, I wound up staying for 2 or so hours, having a burger and at least 4 beers. We played some games, had a lot of laughs and it was hella fun. So I got to the gym, caught up a bit with Tony, then finally started the WOD:

"With a continuously running clock do one pull-up the first minute, two pull-ups the second minute, three pull-ups the third minute... continuing as long as you are able.

Use as many sets each minute as needed."

I managed 13 rounds + 8 pull-ups in round 14 (94 total pull-ups)

Yikes, it started so easy, but right around round 10 things went to shit, and fast. But compared to what I could do in November (maybe 7-8 pull-ups max, then maybe 5 or so in the next set if I was given enough rest) I'm super happy. Overall, a great workout day and a hard-earned easy run tomorrow.

Meant to get out early today and do an easy run. This didn't happen for a number of reasons, laziness being large among them. Oh well. I almost just blew it off, but as I was going to leave the house to drive to Happy Harry's I decided to just suck it up and run. Originally had planned to do 20-25k today, pushed it back to ~9ish. Wound up doing a bit more than that. Here's the damage:

9.8 miles in 1:18:30 (8:01 pace)

Went out real easy and didn't push at all. Ok, maybe I pushed the last few miles a bit and they were under 8:00, but it FELT ok. I finished feeling pretty refreshed, which was the goal today...easy, relaxed running to get ready for tomorrow's speed work. Long arduous speed work! Nothing much else to write home about for this one, good solid run.

M and I went out for a run this morning before I left for Delaware. It was REALLY awesome going for a run with someone else and actually having it feel like I was running, as opposed to power walking. Don't get me wrong, I like when friends of mine get out for a run with me, no matter how slow they are. But this was refreshing to be going about 9:00 pace for a number of miles with someone else and not having to stop every minute or slow down or whatever. We actually ran to CVS to buy some Airborne, then ran back, and did the return trip faster than we went out. It was also nice to run without knowing the route ahead of time for a change. All told here's the damage:

4.7 miles in ~42 min (~8:56 pace)

Too bad she lives 6 hours away. I've apparently inspired her to start running more regularly and train for the Mohawk Hudson River Marathon (the one I'd planned to do last year) and try to BQ (a 3:40 for her). Sweet. Now a 6 hour drive home

So I went back to the gym by myself today. Intended on doing 45 minutes @ half marathon pace (6:40) with last 5 minutes at 10k race pace (6:20ish) on the treadmill because there were no nearby tracks. This did not go well. At all. I thought it would be better than dreadmills at the CSB. Not quite. I started off with a mile warm-up, but as soon as I ramped it up to 9 mph (6:40 miles), I knew I probably wasn't going to last 45 minutes like this. I got to 1.75 miles before I had to drop it back to 8:00 pace. Ran at that for a little bit, went back up to 6:40 pace through like 20 minutes or so, then dropped it back again. I was feeling pretty defeated and figured I'd just cool down, get off, and lift a little to salvage the day, but then I put it up to 7:13 pace (a little faster than goal marathon pace) and ran at that for 1.5 miles. Then cooled down for a half mile. All told it was something like 5 miles in 39 minutes, 6.5 miles total

Then I did the CrossFit WOD although I didn't do the running for obvious reasons. So I wound up doing this:

3 rounds for time of:

row 500m, 21 burpees
did this in about 11 minutes

Overall, I'll get over the bad run, the rest of the workout was good, and I'm having a great weekend so life ain't too bad :)

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY EVERYONE!
Today we went to a yoga class at M's gym, something I was really interested to try out. I had to pretend I lived up here and was thinking of joining, something Carl and I did at a number of places back on LI one summer when we were pretty into powerlifting. So we went to the gym, did the class (we were a little late and I didn't have a mat but it all worked out). Turns out yoga is pretty intense! I really enjoyed it though and wish I were able to do it more, I think I'll have to start doing my AM and PM yoga tapes regularly. Then I showed her some good compound lifts (because, really, you can get by doing nothing but squats, deadlifts, and pull-ups). She took to them pretty quickly, I was impressed. Then I did the CrossFit WOD:

7 rounds for time of:
10 sumo deadlift high pulls, 95#
10 ring dips

I subbed 2:1 regular dips because there was no rings, finished in 14:21, which was pretty good I think. Then jogged a mile on the treadmill for kicks, but I was pretty sore from the hiking and happy with that being enough exercise today.

So we didn't get up early enough to make it worthwhile to go skiing this morning. Instead M decided that we should go hiking in Moreau Lake State Park. I was a big fan of this idea. Threw on my boots and we were off by early afternoon, got to the park and hiking around 3ish. We wound up getting lost at some point. Well, not really lost, just took the wrong direction and instead of looping around the lake back to where we started we ended up coming out at the other side of the park and then had to walk the 2 or so miles back to the car in the dusk/dark. But it was an AWESOME day with AWESOME views! All told, here's the damage:

~6 miles of hiking on icy/snowy trails for 4 hours

I LOVE it up here, kinda wish I was closer than 6 hours away because upstate NY has real MOUNTAINS, whereas the highest elevation in Delaware doesn't even come close to cracking 1,000'

The weather was SOOOO nice today, I was scheduled to do an easy 8 miles but I wanted to go to the state park...so I did, even if it meant a harder run on the trails. I biked the ~4 miles to the parking lot at White Clay, then before starting went over to the map just for the hell of it, and realized that my usual trail is actually 3.9 miles, not 3.6! So, 2 laps would give me just about 8 anyway, awesome! Had a bottle of water with me and took off. Here's the damage:

7.8 miles in 1:12:38 (9:19 pace)

including:
1st 3.9 mi- 36:50.51
2nd 3.9 mi- 35:48.45

Right away I realized this was gonna be a fun/tough run because the entire trail was sloppy mud. On the downhills I kept slipping and sliding with each step and a few times I came close to totally wiping out. I LOVED IT! Took it as easy as possible, but I have to admit, there were times I kinda pushed it when I was feeling really good. After I was done I biked about 5 miles home. I guess I can count that as cross-training, I mean I biked 9 miles today, but whatever, it was at a nice relaxed pace and it just doesn't register much with me. Methinks tomorrow will be a full rest day, seeing as how I have a 6 hour car drive ahead of me and all.

This morning I met Lee in the gym to do the WOD. Today was a heavy day, just 7x1 deadlifts. I LOOOOOVE deadlifts! They are my absolute favorite lift to do, something so raw about just picking a heavy object off the floor. RAWR! Anyway, Curt said I may need to work with Lee on his form a bit, and I was looking forward to helping him out. Got there a little early and warmed up on the bike and then with some low weights. Lee got there and we formulated a plan for him (his elbow tendons are a bit iffy right now so we decided against 1rm) and set his bar up. I decided not to go to my 1rm either, seeing as how I had a pretty tough looking track workout ahead of me. Here's what I did:
7x1 deadlifts (in lbs):
275, 295, 295, 305, 315 (sumo), 315, 315 (sumo)

I focused on doing most of these conventional style (feet close together) as opposed to sumo (feet wide apart) because I normally do them sumo and I wanted to work on my form for conventional. Here's a video of me doing the third set, at 295 lbs. My hips come up a bit early but overall I'm happy with it:


Then I went to look at a really nice apartment with Michface. We're thinking of rooming from July-December to save some cash. I'm undecided but it WOULD be nice to not spend as much money on rent.

Biked down to the track about 2 miles and who was there? The Asian guy I saw last week, running in khakis instead of jeans this time. Good for him getting out there, but I will NEVER understand the workout attire of the many Asian and Indian students here. Anyway, let's get to the nuts and bolts. The workout was thus:

7x1000 @ 5 mile race pace (3:53), 3:00 jogging recovery, 1 mile warm up, 1.5 mile cool down Here's the damage:

1000m splits
3:47.95
3:50.78
3:50.06
3:50.77
3:53.59
3:52.20
3:49.88

Most of those were done at 5k pace instead. Oops. No wonder my legs were really feeling it on those last 2-3. ~9 miles total.

Now for the humble pie part! You see, as I was finishing my warm up, I noticed people starting to jog there way onto the track. Before long the UD track team was in various stages of their own warm ups around the track. I had unknowingly just stumbled into track practice. Yikes! Fortunately no one told me to get off or anything, I did get some curious looks but that was it. After the initial "oh shit" I got comfortable and focused on what I had to do, however slow it would seem to the other people there. Clearly I didn't run that slowly during in any of my splits, in fact I did BETTER than I had anticipated! But the men's team, well they are a completely different class of runner than I. They would lope by me with effortless looks on their faces, cranking out 74 sec 400s like they were jogs. I have to say, I was faster than all of the females, and actually wasn't BLOWN AWAY by ALL of the guys, but they were definitely all faster than me. Definitely reminded me that there is ALWAYS room for improvement. A LOT of improvement!

Finished up my cool down and biked home. I was too drained to go to dodgeball so I didn't. But overall a GREAT day today, workout-wise!