Welcome to Spring: Elizabeth 8K Race Recap, Training Update, and Updated Racing Schedule

On Saturday March 19th, 2016 I competed in the Elizabeth 8K Road Race in Charlotte, NC. My goal going into this race was simply to run strong and consistently and put in a confident performance. I woke up at 6:15am on Saturday, got dressed for the race, and had half a bagel for nutrition. Soon we were off and headed to the race. Cole and I warmed up just about two miles and did stretches and strides on the start line. Going into this race I figured I had a decent chance to place top five or contend for the money available to the top three finishers. On the start line I recognized a few people from around Charlotte that I believed would be right up there with me, including a senior from Rock Hill, SC that I used to race against in high school. When the gun went off I quickly settled into fifth place at a comfortably pace, but unfortunately I had already watched the top three runners slip away. I credit that to my lack of strong mileage recently, which I’ll talk about later in this post. In 4th place, however, was the high schooler from Rock Hill. I focused on holding on a few seconds back from where he was. The Elizabeth 8K course is pretty challenging due to its large number of turns and long uphill’s so I wanted to use the slight downhills to open up my stride and the slight uphill’s to power up and make up ground. I hit mile one, about 5-10 seconds back from 4th, in 5:50. This was the only split I recorded for the race so I am not entirely sure what my other mile times were. As we neared mile two and started going on an uphill section of the course I closed hard and reached 4th right at mile two. I moved into 4th and worked on opening up around a five second gap over the next half a mile. Unfortunately, at mile three I was led off course due to an errant volunteer but I was able to quickly cut through a yard and only lost ten seconds max. I was now back in 5th place and breathing heavily due to my quick change in pace and lose of rhythm. I worked very hard to stick to him and get back into a comfortable pace. Finally, I was able to power by on another long uphill section just before mile four. I opened up another five second gap but I knew that he was not going away. I felt pretty controlled, and felt like I could hold off a surge but I continued pushing the pace in order to avoid having us make contact. As we entered the last quarter mile of the race I attribute the strength I have developed due to my mileage over the last six months in powering me through to take 4th place by four seconds. I ended up finished in 29:00 for the 8K or about a 5:49 Pace. I probably could have taken another 10-15 seconds off if not for the wrong turn, but that is nothing to dwell on. I was pretty happy with my time on a particularly tough course as well as the strength I displaced in holding a consistent pace, which I have not usually been able to do on shorter races.  I cooled down around a mile with my brother Cole, who finished in around thirty three minutes, as well as the runner from Rock Hill, before calling it a day and heading back home.

As far as training goes I have been keeping it fairly low mileage over the last two months until just the last two weeks or so. I believe part of the reason I had such a hard time recovering was due to the fact that I wore my Mizuno Wave Hitagami 2’s, designed for the 5K to half-marathon distance, for the 100K. In response to this, I visited Greenapple Sports & Wellness over break and had my hips, hamstring, and shins looked at, as well as received some strengthening exercises to incorporate into my routine. I also purchased a pair of HOKA ONE ONE Challenger ATR trail running shoes for my trail races and ultra. I am hoping that I will be able to recover a lot faster next time with more cushioned shoes. Over the last two weeks or so I have been upping my mileage to 50 miles and have been feeling great. This week I have a goal of 60-65 miles to gauge how my body is feeling. This now brings me to my updated racing schedule… I am planning on entering three big races over the summer: The 12 Hour Event at the Black Mountain Monster in Black Mountain, NC, the Dusk to Dawn 50 Miler in Southern Pines, NC and the Grandfather Mountain Marathon. The first race is near the end of May so I will be pushing my mileage up to 70-90 miles a week over the next two months to prepare.

Full Race Schedule:
Elizabeth 8K – March 19th, 2016 – 4th Overall in 29:01 (5:50 Pace)
James Royce Ramble 10K – April 24th, 2016
River Jam Run 6.5 Miler – May 12th, 2016
Black Mountain Monster (12 Hours) – May 21st, 2016
Memorial Day Trail Race – May 29th, 2015
Summer Track Series – June 2016
River Jam Run 6.5 Miler – June 9th, 2016
Brew Dash 6K – June 18th, 2016
Dusk to Dawn 50 Miler – June 25th, 2016
Grandfather Mountain Marathon – July 9th, 2016
River Jam Run 6.5 Miler – July 14th, 2016
Tread Nightly Half Marathon – July 22nd, 2016
Tread Brightly Half Marathon – July 23rd, 2016
River Jam Run 6.5 Miler – August 11th, 2016
Ortho Carolina Classic 10K – August 20th, 2016

I’ll be posting many more race recaps, training updates, and other information in the near future. Thank you again to everyone who has taken a look at my blog thus far. 

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