PR and Month of May

PR'd big time on the Rayburn powerlines this morning. I had a headlamp on but only really needed it for the first tenth through the woods connecting to the powerlines. I felt good on the flats and downhills but a bit sluggish on the uphills, which is unusual. I would attribute that to my mountain racing last weekend.

Kind of feel like a dork because I recorded my splits at certain landmarks during this run. I figure though, this run will be my measuring stick because it incorporates up and downhills, flats and some technical running.

So here are the splits:

Milbury St Out -13:06
Turn Around - 27:56
Milbury St  Back - 39:30
Finish - 51:18

My previous best had been 56:13, so I chopped off about 5 minutes which I really can't believe. I did have to side-step big puddles during that run and it was still dark towards the beginning. Today, no headlamp needed and no puddles. I think sub-50 is possible and will shoot for it come fall. I also hit the turn around sub 30 which blew me away. I thought I would blow up on the way back but held steady. I hit the turn around in about 30 and change in my last powerline attempt.

The month of May included two races, the Wapack and Wachusett race, two completely different races. I did not really taper for either seeing that I had a race one week prior to Wapack (so it was just really recovery for Wapack and not tapering) and I didn't take a single day off before Wachusett. I only ran 181 miles this month, which is considerably lower than my last two (205/214) but I have a feeling my mileage estimations have been off. I've been running solo quite a bit and without Jay and his GPS, haven't been able to track my correct mileage. I mostly guess mileage by pace. Not really too concerned though. With success at both races this month and huge PR today, something is working.

Long runs have been tough this month as well. I've only been able to get in about 2 hours at most if I'm not racing. Family and work comes first and I just can't seem to get up any earlier on the weekends to get a 3 to 4 hour run in lately.

As for June, get back to 200 miles of running. Maybe a few short trail races to increase my leg turnover, and enjoy the last month of school.