Friday, May 25, 2007

Taper Week Update

It's been a pretty easy week for me. I ran a shorter long run on Sunday, and I've done some easier track workouts in the days since. Here's a quick summary of my most recent runs:

Sunday: Easy long run on the creek path. Total: 9.1 miles in 1:17:02 (8:27 pace).

Tuesday: 4x400 at 10k goal pace (around 96 seconds). This was an easy workout meant to keep the legs moving and solidify my goal pace. I ended up running these in 93.5, 94.2, 94.7, and 95.6 seconds. Although I got slower between the first and last intervals, this was a deliberate effort to hone in on the proper pace. Total for the day: 4.3 miles in 33:08 (average pace 7:42).

Wednesday: 4.1 miles easy, with 5x100m strides. Total time 32:55 (8:01 pace).

Friday (today): 8x100 at a quick pace. I thought I would run these in about 20 seconds, but my slowest turned out to be 18.8 seconds, and the fastest was 16.9. They felt pretty good, but that's the fastest running I've done all year. Hopefully it won't hurt my taper! Total for the day: 4.2 miles in 39:28 (average pace 9:23, although that counts some non-running time between reps).

Weekly total: 21.7 miles

Interesting thing spotted on the run

On Tuesday I saw a couple guys on the tennis court playing a new sport, a "mash-up" of soccer and tennis. It was played with a soccer ball and no hands (just like soccer). One guy would serve by dropping the ball and then kicking it over the net. The other guy had to kick it back before it bounced twice, which usually meant catching it with his feet and dribbling the ball (is that the right term?) a few times before kicking it back. They were keeping score and everything. Pretty cool!

Weekend plans

Saturday I'll be helping my friend Mark celebrate his 40th birthday. Like most Boulderites who've reached that distinctive age, you'd never know it. Earlier in the day, I'm hoping to borrow a friend's kayak and take a few runs on Boulder Creek. I'm planning to sign up for the Ultimate Mountain Challenge at the Teva Mountain Games in Vail. It's coming up next weekend and I really should do some paddling (and mountain biking, and road biking) before this 4-stage race. Sunday I'll go for an easy 3-4 mile run and probably check out the Boulder Creek Festival a little bit. And Monday...well, that's the Bolder Boulder, of course (the whole focus of this blog)!

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