#261

 "Reach out reach out for the medal reach out reach out for the gold come play to win never give in the time is right for you to come and make your stand reach out reach out"

Reach Out For The Medal-Giorgio Moroder

Not quite the mileage week I wanted{ when is it ever??!!} sometimes less is more but a huge reduction in the recent bastard heat and humidity.....plus after 16 weeks a race ..............

Monday August 18th After a brutal weekend of heat and humidity where my apartment  felt like a Native American sweat lodge there was a dramatic dip in both heat and humidity.....how long it'll last I don't know? we could suffer through one more  heatwave b4 we say goodbye to August next week but if we don't{fingers crossed,rosary beads out and however many Hail Mary's it takes!!!} September can still throw one or two our way....time to make hay while the sun isn't beating down on us I guess...

Opted to stay on the Schuylkill River Trail even though I wouldn't require the breeze coming off the Schuylkill River today 5 miles in 70 degree heat and only 76% humidity,however in my haste to get out the door to work this morning I forgot to unhook Hal the little bollix Garmin off its charger.....no biggie a couple of weeks ago in a failed attempt to get 6 mile in out and back on the trail I "eyeballed" where 2.5 miles came in between the on off ramp of the South Street bridge and the actual bridge its self so I knew where to make the turn today

After several if not weeks but several runs when it felt like I was running  in a friggin' Turkish Bath it was a joy not to toil in the heat and humidity today and the forecast for the rest of the week was looking promising.......

Tuesday August 19th 76 degrees but only  56% humidity today as I logged a 43.00.6 5 miler off  8.36 mile pace,for this week at least and hopefully moving forward it's time to reintroduce the Garmin, there didn't seem a point  in the heat and humidity worrying about speed and pace but w/ cooler temps and less humidity and a pair of 10k races coming up I wanted an idea of where my fast twitch muscles were,if I was using 9 min mile pace as a yardstick then my time for 5 miles would be 45 mins so to go 43.00 off 8.36 tells me either I set the bar too low or i'm quicker than I thought

Again to get done a lunchtime run and not be drowning in my own sweat is a joy, while there are still 12 more ''Dog Days Of August" to contend w/ just a brake from the oppressive heat and humidity feels very welcome and judging from the fact I felt I saw more runners out on the Schuylkill River Trail this lunchtime tells me I'm not the only one taking advantage of this

Friday August 22nd.......the fuck you say a Friday run.....what happened to observing the Pagan Sabbath you ask?? well A despite being a self confessed creature of habit I was switching up my routine this week and since Friday was race number pick up day for Sundays Philly 10k races it created and opportunity to run and B the weather and work fecked me both Wednesday & Thursday

Wednesday it rained....not a deal breaker  as such........however the 95%  humidity that accompanied it stuck a fork in that plan so now since Friday was an option to run I figured I could still get my 4 days/ 20 miles/5 milers in.......cue work fucking me over on Thursday.....

I appreciate I'm there to work so I try not to "throw my toys out of the pram"when I can't watch the Six One RTE News at 1pm{ 5 hour time difference from  Ireland to America} and also not get bent out of shape if work negates my lunch hour.....that said when I don't get lunch period or it's gone 3pm when I finally get to lunch but I clock out at 5pm I feels tad aggrieved so now instead of a 26 mile  week it's gonna be a 21 mile week, again not the end of the world but the sands of time on August are running out if I want triple digit mileage this month,it's bad enough I've lost miles due to the heat and humidity this month but when a co worker decides " hooray for me,fuck everyone else" I tend to take that personally....

For the record 41.52.2 off 8.20 mile pace in 81 degrees and only 33% humidity,shaving 68 seconds off of Tuesdays time, the auld football adage goes " ah but can he do it on a cold Tuesday night in Bolton?" can I do it on a warm humid Sunday in Philly over 10k????????..........

Sunday August 24th A date that has been circled on my calendar for a while, each season there are two long stretches of no races, after Broad Street on the first weekend of May till the Philly 10k  at the tail end of August this year was 16 weeks, yes there are races in-between but they are few and far between then after my season finale the Schuylkill River Loop the first weekend of December it's sometimes 15 weeks till the Philadelphia Love Run 1/2 marathon towards the end of March which is why for the last three years I've signed up for the Cupid's Chase 5k in early mid February to brake up that stretch

I've been running the Philly 10k since  either 2017 or 18, until this year it was a non finishers medal event and  self confessed " medal hoor" that I am I tend to skip races that don't give finishers medals.....frankly I could do a training run for the same or long distance if there's nothing in for me when I finish other than the satisfaction of running and finishing,the exception to this rule has been said Philly 10k which I willing ran san finishers medal since it broke up a long stretch of no races and got me ready for the Philadelphia Distance Run in mid September.....this year for the first time in its 12 year history Philly 10k offered finishers medals.....ye had me at unofficial start to the Fall road race season but  also a medal this yearhere's my arm twist it.....ok ok i'll sign up!!!!!!

Up at the arse crack of dawn {5.30am} to be dressed and out the door by 6am to get down to South Street by 6.40am, 50 mins to get one last trip to the bog taken care of, check my bag since Ms Shamrock Warrior was unable to join me this year ,get my all important stretches  in  b4 taking my place in the start corral and waiting for the gun/siren to send us on our merry way

Over the years several songs have been played pre race that have pumped me up often its "Shipping Up To Boston" by Dropkick Murphys or "The Boys Are Back In Town"by Thin Lizzy both will speak to the Celtic Pagan blood in my veins, today it was "Dog Days Are Over"by Florence & The Machine....while technically not Irish Flo grew up in Camberwell  in South East London, has red hair and a last name of Welch.....feck it we're claiming her as one of our own!!!!!

I wasn't sure what to expect timewise in this race, I knew I had the distance covered even if I'm only doing 5 milers at lunchtime and this was 6 I felt the recent  6,8 and 10 mile long runs would see me through but in terms of speed/pace....??? 7.30 mile pace would be give or take 45 mins.....however I couldn't be sure I'm actually in 7.30 mile pace shape,8min mile pace for 50 mins felt like setting the bar too low so something in between would be ideal

When in doubt I start towards the back of the corral so not to get dragged out by the speed merchants and running faster than I need to, nothing worse than the opening miles being too fast and dying over the second half of the race,start out slow/modestly and if it's too slow ye can pick up the pace 7.41 for the opening mile,I was happy out w/ that it's always a bit choppy at the beginning of any race w/ so many runners jockeying for position but it tends to thin out w/in a mile or so and hopefully ye get a clear run of things" let the Dog see the Rabbit" as the auld saying goes

7.38 for mile 2, I was a bit miffed to see 8.01 at mile 3 and worried if the next 4 miles would be 8 min miles.....7.41 at mile 4 put that fear to rest but maybe I relaxed too much or mentally went to sleep as mile 5 was an 8.05 split

I forget at what point of the race I was cognizant of the sweat dripping off me at 7.30am it was mid 70s w/ maybe 75% humidity,I knew it would be ,ever the Boy Scout I'd been checking the temp and humidity all week and made sure to take on plenty of water yesterday, shur drink a pint, piss a gallon but don't show up for yer race dehydrated

Now for the time honoured  auld visualization card for the final mile, even though I was running through South Philly/Center City I visualized the final mile of my daily 5 mile runs down the Ben Franklin Parkway towards 16th St.....it worked like a charm a 7.49 split on route to a 48.31.9 finish off 7.46 mile pace, thanks in no small part to a ferocious kick down South St between the turn on 7th to the finish at 5th St, some will say that's showboating.......I say bollix, I was taught if ye have it to give at the finish  give it, ney point crossing the finish line and saying "I had more to give"....then ye should have given it,!! as Carl Lewis once said"I just wanted to know I left it all out there on the track" trust  me there have been days and will be days I didn't have it or won't have it.......today wasn't that day!

Pre race I thought somewhere between 7.30-8.00 min mile pace I clocked 7.46 almost dead center, going into the Freedom 10k on Sept 1st in 8 days time  now I know where I'm at over 10k, lets see if I can shave a bit more time off of today's time

Medal #5 for the season, #261 for the career and a reward for the last 7 weeks of grind in training, the actual running isn't the grind it's the feckin' conditions this time of year......give it 5/6 months me and all the same runners complaining about the heat and humidity will be complaining about the cold......it's the nature of the beast

21 miles for the week,73 for the month.....dare I dream it? a 32 mile week this week for my longest week of the year and my longest run {12 miles} this year and a return to  triple digits for the month for the first time since February of last year.......I've checked the weather....it looks in my favour,fingers crossed work doesn't bollix  for me........