RunTex 10 Miler -- e.o.w. #10

It was very cold at 7am in Georgetown this AM (12 degrees). Fortunately, there was no wind. As such, i was not in much of a mood to get an extended warm-up. I may have run 1/2 mile outside. I scooted back into the high school after that and did some light stretching & form running where it was nice and warm. The first mile of the race was frigid (cheeks & thighs felt frozen). After that, I slowly adjusted to the temps. Running 630s the first half was sorta boring; I mean I know that is not a jogging pace, but it almost felt like I was doing a LR at just a slightly faster pace. The course was an out & back so I was mainly checking out the terrain (i.e., hills) on the way out. I counted three real hills I would have to tackle on the way back. These are country road hills, which means long, long climbs. Two of them were about three quarters of a mile, but not super steep (thankfully). Anywho, I made the turn in like 32:25. I counted 6 guys ahead of me and 4 of them were within about 1/4 mile. The plan was to gradually pick up the pace over the last 5, but once I made the turn, I decided to just work on catching up to the 4 dudes that were in sight (rather than watching the gremlin). I managed to catch the last of the 4 w/ just under two miles to go. To ensure no one caught up, I picked it up just slightly w/ a little over a mile to go. When the gremlin clicked for mile 9, I noticed I was at 554 pace so I decided to just hold that for the way in (unless someone came up on me). No one did, so I did not have to unleash the fast twitch kick...thank goodness;-) 30:40 for the last 5 miles w/ 553 last mile. 1/2 mile cool down afterward. Pretty solid workout...

This afternoon I ran 5 miles from the apt. So that put me at 16 for the day and 55 for the week. Weak week mileage wise, but two good quality workouts. Oh shit, I almost forgot...I got 3rd overall and 1st in my age group. Cool!