Train Smarter... Not Harder!!!
Got a little too fired up yesterday. I am in the process of helping out my younger brother-in-law prepare for his upcoming fall cross country season. He is a beast, and at 16 can run a sub 17 minute 5k. I fully expect him to break 16 minutes this year. In preparation for his coming summer running camp, I took him to the hills of Stonebridge Ranch last night for a 6 mile scamper... that covered about 1200 feet it total elevation gain.... in the 94 degree sun.
We broke it down into two loops of 3 miles, to cover Sunday's race course in the team 5K we are going to run. I made the mistake of trying to pace with him. He took it easy on me, but I still went out way too fast, covering the first 3 in a hair over 19 minutes. If we added another tenth of a mile that would have been a PR for me at ~19:45. Throw in the hills, wind and heat and it pretty impressive for me.
Though.... I paid for it on the second loop. I managed to keep a pretty steady pace overall, right at marathon training pace... but it felt labored and uneven, and I was drained when we got done. Then I went to meet Yvette at the track for a 3 mile run, as we prepare to the Hottest Half together in August. It was still hot at 8:30pm when she and I ran, and I could tell that the next day was going to be rough. Suffice to say, I skipped the team tempo run this morning to recover.
Overall, a nice 9 mile night.... though the middle 3 were very painful and probably not the most beneficial. The 5K race on Sunday will let me know.