Catching Up: Marathon Recovery and a 10K Race

Now that the marathon is done, it's time to start thinking about the HARRA Spring Series and its shorter races.

21¼ miles last week after the marathon
M – rest, 47°F at 5AM, arms sore, legs sore and using the handrail to go downstairs, a few twinges from left outside Achilles/foot
Tu – rest, 53°F at 5AM, legs sore and using the handrail to go downstairs, a few twinges from left outside Achilles/foot
W - rest, 49°F and raining at 5AM, walking downstairs easily without the handrail by the afternoon, still a few twinges from left outside Achilles/foot
Th – rest, 53°F 5AM, no more niggles from the left outside Achilles/foot
F - 7½ miles recovery run, average pace 8:18 mpm, 48°F at Noon [SeaC/NtrailMBtrail/SeaC]
Sa – 4¾ miles recovery run with BARRA, average pace 10:01 mpm, 42°F at 7AM overcast cold and windy, [2xNtrail]
Su – 9 miles, average pace 7:21 mpm, 52°F before Noon, Partly Cloudy [SeaC/Ntrail-2M/SeaC]


41¾ miles for the week
M – rest, 57°F at 5AM
Tu – 5¼ miles general aerobic, average pace 7:20 mpm, 67°F overcast and mist at 4AM [Dow/Ol]
W - 5 miles on the track, with 3 miles fairly hard, average pace 6:36 mpm, miles splits for the hard 3 miles were 6:15, 6:09, and 6:00, 51°F at 7PM with mist [B'Wood Track]
Th – 5¼ miles recovery run, average pace 8:17 mpm, 48°F at 4AM [Dow/Ol]
F - 4¼ miles recovery run, average pace 9:02 mpm, 42°F at 4PM [FlagR-P-P]
Sa – 9½ miles with a 10K race at an average pace 6:09 mpm, 43°F at 8AM and overcast [Angleton]
Su – 12½ miles, average pace 6:49 mpm, 55°F from 1:30PM, Partly Cloudy with filtered sun, [SeaC/Ntrail-MBTrail-2x(2M-MBT)/SeaC]

Wednesday's track workout went well and I had pretty high hopes for Saturday's 10K race in Angleton. The weather Saturday morning was very good, with just a light north wind, an overcast sky and cool temperatures. Unfortunately I don't think I was quite ready to race a 10K. I ended up with a 38:14; 3 seconds slower than my 10K PR of 38:11 set on the same course way back in January 2003. Back then, the Angleton race was two weeks before the Houston Marathon. On the positive side, I ran much better than last year. 38:14 age-grades out to 79% (79.4% if you add my months past 48) using the 2006 WAVA factors. I think it's interesting that the 2006 age-grading is relatively higher for the shorter races. Under the old 1994 WAVA factors this would only be a 77.4% performance. Looking forward to the Spring series of shorter races, I'm hoping I can follow the old 1994 factors and get some new PRs.

Here's the Angleton 10K course:

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On the personal side, my son came home this weekend. He is on terminal leave with a medical discharge from the Army. This long ordeal is finally over for us, but I still can't forget the other soldiers from his unit who are over there now and the thousands of families who are still struggling with this war.