Since Last Time, Two 5k Races

Yup. Count 'em. Two. Yippee.

The first was on February 2nd. It was the Mid Winters Blues 5k at Beaver Lake. The course is on the wide open, wind swept country roads near the park. It was in the single digits with wind chills in the negative teens. Overall, a great day for a winter run. They had 70 people show up which, I've heard, is about double from last year. Due to the "small" crowd, I was able to snag a 3rd place in my age group of Men, 40 to 44. There were five overall in my age group, so it isn't a huge deal, but it is kinda cool. The second place male in my age group ran a pace that was something like 54 seconds per mile faster than I, so that gives you some perspective. I did feel pretty good through out the whole run. I might have been able to kick it in a little more at the finish but the road surface was a tad dicey at that part of the course. BTW, I was 28th overall. And, it was one of my faster 5k times and the fastest since the summer of 2005. So it was a good day. All that and I had a great time running with Ed.

The second 5k was the following weekend on February 10th at the Chilly Chili in Cazenovia. As far as participants, it is at the other end of the spectrum from the Beaver Lake run. Caz had 573 finishers. It was a freezing cold, sloppy course. Again, great winter race. My time was way off from the Beaver Lake run and the legs felt very heavy. Could be due to some longer runs during the week that finally caught up with me. Doesn't really matter, cuz I reached all my goals during that time frame: runnin' and funnin'.

Still in the mid-20 miles/week range. After this little "step back" week I'm in now, I'm planning on pushing up to the high 20's mile week range for one week, followed by a low 30's mile week for maybe 2 weeks. I'm kinda planning on a couple spring 1/2 marathons: Skunk Cabbage and/or Utica Distance Hall of Fame.

Well, that's the latest news from here. BTW, we've been getting blasted with snow. So, if I'm not shoveling, I'm at work, running, eating or sleeping. I'm on my way to catching some zzzz's right now.

'till next time:

So let's take the good times as they go
And I'll meet you further on up the road