Cyberic great 10K and report, wow that is fast.

Hog 4 life congrats on the PR and placing 3rd in your AG.

NRA4Life congrats on the 10K.

I finished my Run To The Top with a disappointing time of 2:48, 13 second slower than my PR. Luck of the draw  I had some bad staging and was placed behind some slower racers. Still a good race and good cause.

Nice job Cyber,  way to hold on.

Cograts Hog4life on 3AG and PR.

Rondog sounds like a tough race up stairs. Congrats.

Is this where you put the half marathon reports?

Wow!  Great 10K yesterday, Eric -- way to crush your goal and PR!  Fantastic.

On the race reports, there's no 'rule' or right way.  Personally, I think it's great when the weekly racers use the Intrepid Racers topic for an update of their race day. For a race report which is more 'permanent' and wont scroll off forums, there's the sticky Race Reports topic.

In the summer you have to pay to enter the botanical garden. I don't know when your birhday is but I know if I had to pay to get in, I'd walk aound and stop everywhere to enjoy what the garden has to offer. All winter and at this time of year, there isn't much to see so it's free to get in. Personnally I have a yearly pass.

Great report Cyber,

I'm planning a Montreal visit for my anniversary and I'll try to remember to try the botanical garden area for my run.

A

Today I went out for an easy 35 minute run, in the rain. Didn't feel like running much today, but as I expected, my legs feel better after the run. And as mentioned in the Hansons Marathon Method, "Many of the adaptations that happen during training occur as a result of running on the days you just don't feel like running."

Fantastic racing!  

I, on the other hand, am still in a slump.  I was thinking maybe I was too stressed out about races and times, so I went out and ran a small local 10K without too much fanfare and no pressure.  And ended up running even slower than my last races would indicate.  I did end up racing one guy for the last mile or so to the finish, so that part was fun and I finally felt like I was racing again.

I'm still 85% sure that the problem is all mental.  Last year everything came so easily because I was still new.  I think I have to go through this plateau before I can break through and become a real grown-up runner who understands that PRs aren't just there for the taking every time we lace up.

So now it's time to take the opposite approach.  My track workouts have been going well, so I was thinking- what's different when I'm at the track?  Other than the recoveries, hah!  Because I'm counting tempo miles in the "going well" category, and didn't run recoveries between those ones.  But at the track, I have my workouts programmed into my watch and while I'm running I only look at my current pace and the distance left in the current interval.  In a race, I'm looking more at overall distance and pace, and that's just too overwhelming.

I'm thinking of programming my next race into my watch just like a workout.  Maybe even with .25 mile "intervals" if I have to.  Then, I will just need to focus on holding pace for that interval.  And then the next one.  I won't even have overall pace or time, so I won't be racing the overall clock.  Just trying to run my goal pace evenly, .25 miles at a time.

I'm pretty sure that once I have one good race, I'll be OK again.  But maybe with more appreciation for what it's going to take to continue to improve.

Hmm, I do have a screen like that on my watch.  Right now I have it disabled because I don't use it, but it's something to consider.