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Ok, so I didn't beat my 5:58.6 time. I did run 6:01.39 and I was happy with it. It was very cold (about 39-40 degrees) and I didn't have enough time to properly warm up. But I felt great throughout the race, ran pretty much even splits 1:30-1:30-1:32-1:29. I didn't feel I paced myself properly. But with several injuries this year I'm glad to see my fitness is basically where I was in Februrary. I can move forward now with increasng my mileage and finally start doing interval work. I look forward to the Los Gatos all-comers' meets starting next month where I plan to focus on running 800's, 1600's, and 3200's.

I had an interesting workout last night. It's been raining cats and dogs the past week in the Bay Area so most of my favorite running trails are flooded swamps right now. So I went to a track to run. At first I had considered not running since it was just after sunset and it was very cold and windy. But I figured I'd get warmed up after a few laps. I was planning on running 8K (20 laps). I walked two laps to warm up a bit, then I started running. The first lap was in 2:03. I loosened up pretty quick and started to open up the throttle. I kept looking at my watch and was surprised by the splits. I felt so good at about 4 miles I decided to run 10K.

1-1600: 7:54.8
2-1600: 7:34.2
3-1600: 7:23.3
4-1600: 7:21.8
5-1600: 7:19.3
6-1600: 7:16.2

I was surprised how easy this felt. It felt about a 70%-75% effort at most. I ran 46:31.6 for the 10K. The pace I ran the last four miles I easily could have held for 10K which would have put me about 45:50. I guess this is good sign that my training is going well. I'm looking forward to 2013 being a great running year.

Great job. Those are great splits and it looks like you have pretty good endurance.

Thanks fidel. Not sure why my endurance and speed are improving? I only ran 71 miles in December. I did start doing 8 mile runs once a week. I plan to increase these long runs to 10-12 miles this month. It could also be all the weight training I've been doing, especially all the core and leg work.

I ran another 10K "time trial" last night. Again this felt about 70%-75% effort. This time I did a long warm up, walked/jogged 4 laps then stretched a bit.

1-1:52.2
2-1:53.9
3-1:52.1
4-1:50.7 (7:28.9 1600m)
5-1:52.2
6-1:51.4
7-1:51.8
8-1:50.3 (7:25.7 1600m)
9-1:51.4
10-1:49.9
11-1:49.6
12-1:49.5 (7:20.4 1600m)
13-1:47.9
14-1:49.1
15-1:48.6
16-1:49.4 (7:15.0 1600m)
17-1:49.5
18-1:49.6
19-1:50.8
20-1:50.2 (7:20.1 1600m)
21-1:48.9
22-1:49.6
23-1:48.5
24-1:45.2 (7:12.2 1600m)
25-1:41.7
45:45.3

Summary
-Total time: 45:45.3
-Last 1600m (laps 22-25) was in 7:05.0
-5K Splits: 23:09/22:36
-1:49.8/lap
-7:22.1/mile

I felt great given the very cold conditions. The Los Gatos All-Comer's meets start up this Saturday so I'll be racing this weekend.

So my 2013 track debut was a complete dud. I ran the 2-mile at Los Gatos. I was hoping to run 12:50-12:55 based on my 6:01.39 mile I ran three weeks ago. This mile converts to about a 12:53 2-mile. I ran a 13:17 3200m back on November 1, 2012. So everything was a go. I figured with two additional months of training dropping 20 seconds wouldn't be a problem. And my race was a complete dud. I think I started way too fast with a 1:32 1st lap. I hit the mile in 6:30 but I was laboring big time and I limped home with a 7:12 2nd mile. I ran 13:44. Oh, well, back to training. I will have better races.

Good to see you still going at it. It looks like you have hit a bit of a plateau, that all of us runners go through at times.

I can relate. I ran a sub-21:00 5k in early March of last year. And, I was really stoked about the prospect of reaching my goal of a sub-20:00 5K in the summer. I didn't even get close to my goal, or to even equalling my effort of early March.

In August, I ran a 12:38 2-mile at an all-comers. Again, I was excited about my prospects at a 3000 meter race in September. My goal was to go under 12:00 for the 3K. Instead, I ran a 12:05, which was a bit of a disappointment. That was my last race in 2012.

I've hit a few plateaus (and even valleys where it seems I am going backwards), but I keep plugging away with my goals in sight.

I am going to try and run a 3K later this month or early next month. My training is going OK. So, I'll see how I do.

I think you have the right attitude. Conitinue your training, and you are guaranteed to have better... no... great races. Just stay injury free, and know when your body needs a rest. Let us know how you do.

Thanks for the encouragement IBMer. For the past four months I've only averaged about 70-80 miles per month, very low mileage. I think it's time to step up the mileage. As of yesterday I already have 33 miles for the month, so I should be about 100 miles for the January. I've started adding hill workouts as well. I would like to see if my body (mainly my feet) can eventually handle 40-50 miles per week. I'm running the mile this Saturday at Los Gatos. If I feel up to it I may run the 2-mile as well, more for a workout, though.

On a side note, why do you think you hit a plateau last year? Over-training? Injury?

Good luck on your run in Los Gatos. The main thing is to have fun.

In terms of my "plateau," I suspect that I was overtraining, not in terms of total miles, but in intensity. I was doing about 3 interval workouts per week, at race pace. I was slowly killing myself. I am too thick headed to accept that I am not 20 years old anymore.

Another runner observed that my workouts were becoming stale, and that I needed to mix up the workouts more, which also makes sense.

Presently, I am only doing one interval workout per week, at 80 to 90 percent race pace, and on other days doing slow to moderate-paced runs of 4 or 5 miles. I also take at least one day off per week. This strategy seems to be working. I feel more energized after workouts, and recovery time is shorter. Just for kicks last week, I timed myself for 2 miles on a grass course with a few moderate hills. I ran relaxed and finished with a time of 13:26. I was pretty happy with the time because I didn't push too hard, and I recovered quickly after the run. The other thing I am doing differently is warming up before, and cooling down after, each workout.

Better result today. I ran the mile in 5:53.45, an 8 second improvement from December 15. Splits were 83-89-90-91. My right hamstring tightened up with 100 m to go so I had to ease up a bit. But overall I felt strong. I need to do form work to smooth out my running gait.

A quick update. A day after my last mile race I started to get sick (cold and cough) and I ended up not running for a week. I started running again on Jan. 20. Since then my training has been going well, it didn't appear that I lost any fitness. i'm running another mile race this Saturday. Hoping to run 5:45 or so. We'll shall see!

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Another update. My last mile race (February 2nd) I ran 6:18.51. I don't know what happened? I ran the first 440 in about 85 seconds and I felt good. Then I just ran slower and slower. I had no energy at all. I was disappointed in that I ran 25 seconds slower than just two weeks before. So I just moved on and have continued to train. I'm feeling good right now, my training run pace is now dipping under 8:00/mile which is a good sign. I'm running another mile race tomorrow at Los Gatos again. Hopefully, it will go much better.

Where do u find all these mile races? I live SW of Portland and Nike is 45 minutes away and Eugene is 1.5 hours to the south. You'd think we would have more mile races but they are rare. Are these road or track miles that you compete in?

Los Gatos High School holds two 8-week track meet series every year. The winter series is in January/February on Saturdays. Then the summer series is held from late June to mid August on Thursday evenings. It only cost $7 to enter each meet and you can enter in as many events as you want. They have auto timing and photo finishes.

That explains it. For some reason, I thought these were road mile races you were competing in... We do have many all-comers track meets here during the summer from Eugene north to Seattle. I like running road miles, though.