Big Racing Week

I am currently on the tail end of a major string of races. It's difficult because I am walking a fine line of racing to the best of my ability, but not let the races get In the way of my training schedule. I am pretty happy with how I have handled this. I did not set any PR's, but diweekly in the middle of some significant mileage and intense training weeks. First race of the week was the Victory 10k on Labor Day. A fast, flat course, one on which I PR'd last year. It was a warm morning, so it was not a PR kind of day. I did manage a 38:30, which according to the marathon pace caculator is sub 3 material. The fun doesn't stop there. Tuesday was a 12 miler, Wednesday was a tough track work out and Thursday was a mid week 14 miler. I took it easy Friday and Saturday and raced the City of Lakes 25k. My training plan called for a 14 mile marathon pace run in the middle of an overal run of 20 miles. So, my plan was to warm up for 4 miles, run 10 at MP the race the last 5.5 miles. It went remarkable well having a half marathon split of 1:29:59 and also running the final miles in 6:44, 6:38, 6:35, 6:27, 6:29 and the final half mile at a 5:56 pace. All in all, a good day's work. I was 4th in my age group and 51st overall unofficially. I didn't get much sleep on Saturday night, as I spent a good part of the evening in the ER. I received a call late in the afternoon from sister-in-law telling me that my brother had severely injured his left hand using his table saw. He was in the ER and underwent a lengthy surgery to try save his fingers. The surgery went well and now it's a waiting game to see how things will heal. Thoughts and prayers are with my brother right now. Six weeks of training until race day and I still feel good about where I am at and how Iam progressing. Lastly, I enjoyed running in my super bright, construction cone orange Brooks Pure Connects. The loudest and most obnoxious shoes ever! Happy Running! Rick