Go slow to go fast.

Easy 45 minutes barefoot.  Breanne, my 5 year old, rode along with me on her bike.  It was a blast having her along.  She is a joy to be with, and I'm totally impressed she can do rides like that already. 

Easy 4 mile jog, 30 minutes or so - didn't have much time this morning because I had a bike ride planned with Eric

95 minute ride around south boulder trails.  Super fun. Always great to get out on the mountain bike.

Officially kicking off marathon training today.  Todd inspired.  I don't know which one I'm going to do, but I have decided I'm going to turn my focus to the road marathon for the next 4-5 months.  Todd is doing New York, and is about 12 weeks out.

I was kind of stoked today to find out we were only doing 6:00 mile pace!  Nice and easy!

I felt like I was cheating or slacking off or something only running 6:00 pace, after being so focused on 4:40 pace for the last month or so.  And there is a BIG difference between those two paces.

Granted we were doing 1K repeats.  But...it was a lot easier effort.

~3 miles warm up, stretch.  8 x 1K repeats with 45-50 seconds rest in between each.  ~3.5 miles cooldown.

Splits for the 1K's: 3:51, 3:30, 3:35, 3:33, 3:46, 3:39, 3:42, 3:40 

We were working on hitting them in 3:43-3:53 range.  Took us a few to dial it in, we were going a bit hot at first, but then we got it dialed pretty well.  Still only 2 out of the 8 were in the range, but I guess we're both still so used to doing faster intervals its hard to slow down to that pace.

The pace range we were hitting was 5:37 up to 6:11.  We averaged about 5:54 pace (3:40's per K).  So a little faster than goal marathon pace, but not much.  It was a good run, getting used to doing the pace.  But doing a 2:34 marathon (5:54 pace) is a little faster than both of our goals at this point.

My goal right at this moment is to prep for a sub 2:45.  But I would really like to be in the sub 2:40 range on my first marathon.  I just think that sounds cooler I guess.  But considering it will be my first road marathon, I may cut myself some slack/be a little more realistic, and just stick with the 2:45 goal.  What I'd really like to do is run a sub 2:30, and eventually faster.  But I'm not going to be forcing/rushing anything on that front, since realistically that's going to take some very consistent training and experience at the distance/pace that I shouldn't be expecting to be able to get to in one training cycle.  I do have a growing desire to get to that point over the next couple years though.

Easy 7.5 miles on bike paths with Todd Straka and Eric W.  Nice 74 degree morning...so gorgeous here right now.  Taking advantage of as many shirtless runs as I can before it starts to get dark and cold in the mornings.

Decided to get after the long run a bit more today and do a bit of steady running for a while.  Wasn't sure for how long setting out, but figured a total of 13-14 miles would suffice for the morning.

I ended up doing a really nice loop out to the S boulder creek trail and down to S. Boulder Road, then up to Cherryvale, up the hills, back to Marshall, back down S. Boulder Creek trail, past East boulder rec, and up bear creek to home.

It ended up being exactly a 13.1 mile figure 8 loop...which was convenient to know for future reference.

I warmed up the first couple miles, even though the 2nd mile was 6:38, it was down hill so was still pretty chill pace.  Then I ran steady for 9 miles.  Then jogged it in the last couple miles up hill.

Finished the 13.1 in 1:29:45 - Which was my goal 1/2 marathon time last year.  I never did race a half marathon.  But obviously I need to increase my goal.

My new goal is 1:15.  I do plan to race a half sometime this fall and go after that time or better.

Here were my splits for the run today:

8:17, 6:38, 6:21, 6:38, 6:51, 6:35, 5:56, 6:24, 6:26, 6:42, 7:06, 7:41, 7:27 

About 450' vert for the loop.