Thursday's Run(s)
Hats off to my daughter, Waverly, this morning! She is in the fourth grade at Abercrombie Academy here on the north side of Houston.
Every year, they have a physical fitness program that requires them to be timed in the mile. Their "practice" mile run was today at Meyer Park (near Stuebner Airline and Cypresswood) after having been cancelled twice in November due to the weather.
I was able to go and pace her. They have two recognition levels -- Presidential and National. The 9-year-old standard for Presidential was in the 9-minute-per-mile range while the National was an 11:52 mile. So Dad did the math and figured an even run would be 2:58 per quarter mile.
Of course, most of the kids were off like gangbusters, but all but a couple of them (a class of 17) were walking before the quarter mile point. We passed the first quarter mile marker in 2:53.34. She started to take a bit of a walk break, but I encouraged her to run to the half mile marker and she posted a 3:02.99 second quarter mile and was right on the money at the half point -- 5:56.33.
She passed a number of kids that were walking and, of course, that inspired some of them to get moving (remember: she wore her medal around her neck at school on Tuesday.)
She started to walk some in the third quarter mile, but posted what I thought to be was a 3:12.10 quarter mile (there's a post, but no sign). As we made a turn on the course to the right, you could see the finish line just off in the distance. I kept reminding her that she didn't have far left to go and in the last couple of hundred yards, she started to sprint as much as she could.
The last quarter mile she did in 2:48.53! A mile time of 11:56.96! Just 4 seconds off of what she needs for some extra recognition. But ... that is about a minute and a half better than what she did on Thanksgiving Day!
As her class walked across the park, I decided to run the mile back around to try and get loose a little bit more. A mother of a classmate of Waverly's, Rachel Johns, said she'd run it with me. I wasn't timing it because I wanted to save the splits to journal here but I felt we were running pretty strong. Just before the 3/4 mile post on the return, Rachel said to take it on in. I wasn't interested in showing anyone up (although I could have since she got me last February in the ConocoPhillips Rodeo Run 10K), so we walked in until about the last 100 yards or so and then sprinted in.
After I had been home a little bit, I decided to try the 3.4-mile loop on the outer parts of my subdivision. The first 15 minutes were OK, but my thighs (more so my quads than hamstrings) are still beaten up pretty bad. I took five walking breaks of 52, 52, 104, 104, and 78 steps at the 15-, 19-, 23-, 26- and 34-minute marks, respectively. And despite those, I finished it in 37:29.16 for a pace of 11:01 per mile.
If the Run The Woodlands 5K on Saturday was today, I'd sit it out.
Every year, they have a physical fitness program that requires them to be timed in the mile. Their "practice" mile run was today at Meyer Park (near Stuebner Airline and Cypresswood) after having been cancelled twice in November due to the weather.
I was able to go and pace her. They have two recognition levels -- Presidential and National. The 9-year-old standard for Presidential was in the 9-minute-per-mile range while the National was an 11:52 mile. So Dad did the math and figured an even run would be 2:58 per quarter mile.
Of course, most of the kids were off like gangbusters, but all but a couple of them (a class of 17) were walking before the quarter mile point. We passed the first quarter mile marker in 2:53.34. She started to take a bit of a walk break, but I encouraged her to run to the half mile marker and she posted a 3:02.99 second quarter mile and was right on the money at the half point -- 5:56.33.
She passed a number of kids that were walking and, of course, that inspired some of them to get moving (remember: she wore her medal around her neck at school on Tuesday.)
She started to walk some in the third quarter mile, but posted what I thought to be was a 3:12.10 quarter mile (there's a post, but no sign). As we made a turn on the course to the right, you could see the finish line just off in the distance. I kept reminding her that she didn't have far left to go and in the last couple of hundred yards, she started to sprint as much as she could.
The last quarter mile she did in 2:48.53! A mile time of 11:56.96! Just 4 seconds off of what she needs for some extra recognition. But ... that is about a minute and a half better than what she did on Thanksgiving Day!
As her class walked across the park, I decided to run the mile back around to try and get loose a little bit more. A mother of a classmate of Waverly's, Rachel Johns, said she'd run it with me. I wasn't timing it because I wanted to save the splits to journal here but I felt we were running pretty strong. Just before the 3/4 mile post on the return, Rachel said to take it on in. I wasn't interested in showing anyone up (although I could have since she got me last February in the ConocoPhillips Rodeo Run 10K), so we walked in until about the last 100 yards or so and then sprinted in.
After I had been home a little bit, I decided to try the 3.4-mile loop on the outer parts of my subdivision. The first 15 minutes were OK, but my thighs (more so my quads than hamstrings) are still beaten up pretty bad. I took five walking breaks of 52, 52, 104, 104, and 78 steps at the 15-, 19-, 23-, 26- and 34-minute marks, respectively. And despite those, I finished it in 37:29.16 for a pace of 11:01 per mile.
If the Run The Woodlands 5K on Saturday was today, I'd sit it out.
posted by WalkSports.com | 1:11 PM
2 Comments:
Hey! Great blog- hope to keep up with it. I just ran my first Half Marathon Sunday in Houston. 2:14:06! Keep on running!
WTG Waverly!!! that's an awesome time cut from just a few months ago. At my kid's school, they try to get them to do a full mile in 10 minutes. I think he was just barely able to do it last spring, and is working his way back up to it now. And look at you, running again so soon after the 'thon.
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