My racing streak continues, finishing up my mini-training cycle with the New Prague Half Marathon. I like the profile of this course, with its gently rolling hills, but hate the fact that it is always very windy and that most of the course is out in the middle of nowhere, with no protection from said wind. However, yesterday I woke up and all seemed calm. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping and the wind was still. Sounds like a PR day! Got to New Prague early, warmed up with teammate Joe and got down to business. Went out pretty fast, but when we turned the corner there was that pesky wind, not strong, but enough to effect pace a bit. Usually the wind is from the other direction and we we have to fight on the way back. I made a conscious decision not to fight the wind and make up time on the way home. My splits into the wind looked like this, 6:27, 6:33, 6:30, 6:35, 6:30, 6:40, 6:30. This was not looking good, but when we turned the corner my splits looked like this, 6:20, 6:22, 6:15, 6:15, 6:13, and 6:04 for a final time of 1:23:15, a new PR by a minute and a half!
So now, I get to back off for a week, race the Brian Kraft 5k and start in earnest my training for Twin Cities. I am excited about my fitness level heading into this cycle. To be able to run a 1:23 half with no real long runs for 6 months is very encouraging. When I consistently am adding in some 20 mile runs, I will expect to see my times drop even further.
Happy Running!
Rick
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