Some Slow Speed

Run 8 miles

Ran a local 10k road race this morning. Kind of forgot how much I hate running hard on the road, especially if it's flat. I didn't race 100% but I did run pretty hard (about 85% effort). I was hoping to get in a good tempo workout and was expecting to feel a lot stronger than I did. Afterwords I thought about the fact that I hadn't really run fast in over 8 weeks so it began to make a little more sense to me that I just don't feel like I have any speed right now. The best thing though was that I was able to run a decent pace for 10k and did not experience any knee, ankle, arch, or ball of foot pain (all of which have bothered me on and off for the past 2 months). The other good thing was that this race had a much larger turnout than the other 2 local races that I've run. I think I finished 2nd, or maybe 3rd today. It was nice not to win another race simply because there were so few runners. Don't get me wrong, I love to win, but not when I'm running an event as a training run and as a way to support the local running club. When I win a race that I've put 100% focus into (like this year's Susitna 100) it's one of the most satisfying feelings, but winning a race that I've put no focus into whatsoever (like the other 2 Juneau races I've run before today) is for some reason very uncomfortable and embarrassing to me. I do not care much for the attention that comes with winning any race, but for some reason it is especially unsettling when I win a race that I do not put 100% effort into. Today was great though. By finishing 2nd or 3rd I was able run a bit of a cool down, sip some watered down urine flavored sports drink, and head for home without ever more than a one sentence conversation with anyone. Not that I don't like talking to people (OK, often I don't, but not all the time), but I don't like talking to people after a race when the conversation is focused primarily on me. I find that when I win a race this type of conversation is very hard to avoid. I can more or less deal with this if it's a race that I've put weeks of serious effort into, but for whatever reason I just can't be comfortable in these situations when I have not put in the effort. Anyone else ever feel this way? Or am I just more antisocial than I'm willing to admit?

Another solid week of cross training. 30 miles running, 39 miles skiing, 75 miles biking, in about 16 hours of time. Very similar to last week's totals.