Week 9: Five Mile Milk Run ... Until the End!

This was the latest cut-back week; so, it was a now modest five miles on the schedule for the Roadrunners Los Angeles Marathon plan. It was a "milk run" run.

It has been a difficult week for many reasons and the energy was just lacking. I think may be the fact that I KNEW I could do five miles and had done it before perhaps lessened the enthusiasm.

At least the session started with the Roadrunner cadence which helped. Motivation. Dedication. Aye.

The morning was semi-overcast to match my energy level. Still, Group 7 (Lucky 7/Magnificent 7) was off and headed north going along the Strand to the water stop (with the weekly promises of menudo and/or coffee and doughnuts from Captain Jesus). Then it was up the Santa Monica Pier and further north to Wilshire. As is the new tradition, I kept my cap backwards from Ocean Avenue to Santa Monica Blvd. and vice versa on the return. My group partner and I had another discussion on the Dodgers and the McCourts debacle.

It seemed like a normal return leg when the group seemed noticeably faster through to the end. It turns out the reason why it seemed noticeably faster was because the group was noticeably faster; the pace leaders changed it to race pace for the last mile! So, it was nice to feel some relative speed. I need my sprinter/semi-sprinter fix!

My Garmin electronic conscience said it was really 5.61 miles (vs. scheduled five) in 1:04:24 for a 11:29 overall pace.

Afterwards, I spoke with the senior pace leader and he said they were pleased as the group responded and no one fell off the faster pace. He also said he felt if the group was going on race pace the entire way on a longer run, they would normally see up to 50% drop out/back rate.

Anyways, it was more Gatorade and bananas and then a presentation nutrition with a list of vitamins I had never heard of and seemed a bit intimidating to me as well as my wallet.

I am glad I ran as I needed it; but, the sense of achievement for setting a new high in distance was gone obviously. This week's run was more just survive than thrive; but, may be that is a good thing every few weeks so the edge is there when needed.