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Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Less than a week to the Gate River Run USA 15km Champs: Last week's training.

We're days away from the 2015 USA 15km Championships during the Gate River Run in Jacksonville, FL. I'll be heading out of Portland for the long flight early Thursday morning, getting there in the mid-afternoon with enough time to get my run in along with some drills and strides. While it is nice to get the run over with before flying, running after the flight does make me feel better the following day. The weather looks to be fairly typical for this time of year: warm and a bit humid. The low for race day currently shows 63 degrees, which means it will be a little sticky when the gun goes off at 8:30 AM. Because this is a championship race, time is not important, so I don't mind challenging weather conditions when you are simply running for place. It adds an extra element that puts emphasis on patience, experience, and knowing your body.

8:30 AM is a nice start time for a 15km if you live on the East Coast. For those of us coming from the West Coast, and there are many, that is the equivalent of starting at 5:30 AM and waking up for breakfast at approximately 2:00 AM. It's not possible, for me at least, to get myself to sleep by 6:00 or 7:00 PM PST in order to make up for this. My strategy has been to stay on my own body time, which means going to bed a bit later and sleeping in later on Thursday night to make sure I get a full night's sleep, and then you just put up with a short night heading into the race. The adrenaline of race day is enough to get you going, and your job is done for the day by 11:00 (8:00 PST) after a cool-down and awards, so you can head straight back to bed!

Training went well last week as I bounced back from a mediocre mile repeat workout the week before. The 8 x 800 meter workout on the track was another confidence booster as I was able to average 2:07 with less than two minutes rest for 4 miles of work. That was followed by another 4-mile tempo in 4:41-4:42 and some smooth 200 meter repeats. The weather has continued to be outstanding, making these workouts much easier to get through than they should be this time of year.

I'm all set for Jacksonville this weekend. My fitness is significantly farther along than it was when I ran this race last in 2013 where I was 3rd, but I would argue the field is deeper this this year. There are too many names to list here, but this will be one of the strongest US road race championships of the year, and I'm looking forward to putting myself into the mix. Thanks again for reading. Feel free to check out last week's training below, and follow me here on Twitter for more updates.

Week 16 AM PM Strength/Drills Mileage
Monday 11 5.5 40 minutes 16.5
Tuesday 5 8 x 800 meters 2:06-2:08 (avg. 2:07) w/1 lap rest (< 2 minutes) 16
Wednesday 12.5 Off 40 minutes 12.5
Thursday 10+drills and strides 5.5 16
Friday 5.5 off 30 minutes 5.5
Saturday Off 4 mile tempo @ 18:47 + 6 x 200 meters @ 28-29 12.5
Sunday 14 off 14
TOTAL 93

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