Three runs in one entry - Mom's day = new 4 miler PR!

In reverse chronological order -

Today's race – Mother's day 4 miler

My goal was to run the entire race in under 28 mins, at least matching my time from a couple of weeks ago.

Comps:
Last year's Mom's day – May 11th – 28:17 (which seemed unbelievably fast at the time and for a long time thereafter – my fastest per mile race by far up until that point)

Run for the Parks – April 11th 2009 – 27:48

Today's race – 27:32
Splits – Mile 1 6:49
Mile 2 6:41
Mile 3 7:10
Mile 4 6:49

The stupid hill on Mile 3 always kills me (but I can't complain when mile #4 is straight down hill). Overall I am very pleased both for breaking my PR and for maintaining my tradition of 'doing it for Mom' (including this year Steph!) and running my fastest on Mom's day.

Now let's hope that unlike last year I continue to peak all the way through the Summer.

A final thought – this was a taxing race. My AVERAGE heart rate was 181. I'll have to check the pace and heart rate against the Run for the Parks...but I think that this shows that I'm a bit further out of shape that I was in April. Time to hit the streets a bit harder. But the new shoes (got racing shoes as my old racers were spent) helped out a ton.

Friday's run

A little 2.22 miler out and back. First with my brand new, proper, shoes. I went out fast and tried to beat my time coming back, which I did easily. In retrospect, I wonder if I used a bit of energy on Friday and this caused my elevated heart rate in today's race?

Out (downhill) 16:23 HRM Ave 158 Pace: 7:23
Return (slight uphill) 15:46 HRM Ave 171 Pace: 7:03

note the difference in heart rate – which includes starting from basically scratch both times (long wait, like 10 mins between runs).

Sunday Night Run

5.92miles
53:43
Perhaps interestingly, I had to stop – for the first time basically ever as my forefoot (right and to a lesser degree my left) throbbed with pain. When I got home I realized that I was a. wearing the wrong shoes (I have high arches and these shoes are for normal footed folks) and b. I flex my foot really hard when sitting at this and my work computer. Since then I've been working to address both factors. The sitting was easy – just mentally break the habit. I also ordered some new shoes (which are working like a charm, as you can see above).