Too many withdrawals without enough deposits...

That's the analogy Beth gave me today. No, it wasn't about our financial situation. But not that we're swimming in money or anything--actually our Jetta's acting up and we were pricing new cars this past week and we're trying to figure out how to budget it!!

What she was referring to was my fitness level. I've been taking some "withdrawals" from the "Bank of Fitness" two of the last three weekends, however (as noted in previous blog entry), the deposits back into the Bank of Fitness have been sporadic at best. It's been a crazy last two weeks in the height of track season and being away travelling for Beth's triathlon last weekend. This past week, I took off Monday to sleep in. Tuesday I had a really solid workout (4x400, 2x800, 4x400 - finished with a 72!), 45 min run Wed, and light run Thursday. Friday and Saturday no runs due to track and car stuff.

So, I came in to today's well-tapered at least (although not well rested as again noted in previous blog entry). With it being a somewhat flatter course than Martha's run, I wanted to improve on my 37:30. The number 36:00 was stuck in my head, so I went in to the race shooting for 5:45 pace.

Mile 1 a little hot at 5:36. Mile 2 uphill and 6:08 and it deteriorated from there. Mile 3 a finish of the up and then down and flat for a 6:02, 18:30-ish at the 5k turnaround, 6:08 mile 4, 6:15 mile 5 that was ALL downhill (ugh!), 6:06 mile 6, and 1:16 0.2 to finish at 37:32. (By the way, Beth's last 0.2 was 1:17. I was slacking to the finish--especially considering I just did a 1:12 0.25 on the track Tuesday. Sheesh!).

The good news is that I did run 37:32 (6:03 pace) and was the 4th male overall (5th overall--beaten out by a female Olympic Trials qualifier). Who would have thought that 3 years ago I'd be disappointed with a 37:32 10k? I guess it's all perspective. And, like Beth noted, I just haven't had the time to put in the proper training to maintain a high level of fitness to improve my times more. I could cite factors that it was in the low 70's and felt a little hot and it was on a rails-to-trails surface, but mostly it's just the conditioning issue.

We did get to meet some people today and make some connections. Beth met up with a friend from high school that she had been in touch with via FB. I had a person after the race come up to me and say, "I hope you don't think that I'm stalking you or anything, but I noticed that we have a mutual friend on Facebook." Turns out that my roommate from my freshman year at Elizabethtown College knew her from 6th grade. Small world! Also, the current Etown track/XC coach went to high school with her. Small world x2!!

So, I'll take it and do my best to put in more time to get ready for the Gatons Memorial 5k Race in Greensburg on Memorial Day. It's a great race in honor of a great person and coach. If you're in the area, definitely come out and support it!