It has been a while...

It has been a while since I have written a post and PR'd in a race. Luckily, I am now accomplishing both. Although I have not written in a couple weeks, I have continued to keep up my weekly regime of about 20-25 miles a week, including a long run of about 10 miles. It seems as though things are paying off. I ran the Scotland 10K yesterday and got my first PR in a race in almost 2 years! I was beginning to think that it may not happen again. I guess I felt "in the zone" and just kept on going. In order to get in my long run for the week, I ran about 2.5 to 3 miles before the race started to get me warmed up and also to add a few miles in. The race started about a minute early (according to my watch) so I got to the starting line of the race just as the gun went off. This wasn't a problem since I figured I'll just squeeze in the middle of the pack. I was able to get in a fast first mile (7:52) but I didn't think at that point that a PR was in store. However, by the time the fifth mile came around, I ran three 7:30 miles in a row and then ran a 7:10 mile for mile 5. At that point I knew that I was on pace for a possible PR. I was feeling good up to that point so once I passed the 5 mile mark, I just gave it all I had. I crossed the line in 46:15, beating my previous best by :36. My previous best 10K was the Joe Kleinerman 10K, all the way back in 2001. My split times for the race were:

Mile 1 - 7:52
Mile 2 - 7:29
Mile 3 - 7:29
Mile 4 - 7:31
Mile 5 - 7:10
Final 1.2 miles - 8:41 (7:14 - mile pace)
Overall time - 46:15, pace - 7:27

This was a great race for me and showed me that I can still continue to get faster if I work hard at it. I was looking forward to the Lehigh Valley Half at the end of April, but unfortunately something just came up and will be unable to run it. I'll just have to sign up for another one soon instead.

Exercise over the past week - Mon - off, Tues - spinning, Weds - 5 miles, Thurs - 6 miles, Fri -off, Sat - off, Sunday - a little more than 9 miles