Go slow to go fast.

moderate run 10 miles - out and back up marshall road. 1:13: 30 - 7:21/avg - 250' vertical, went about 8 min pace going out up the hill and faster coming back after I was more warmed up and coming down hill, still not too hard though.  My body feels really good right now.   Better than i can recall in some time.  My glute tenderness has mostly all gone and I felt totally recovered from Saturdays long run this morning.  I felt totally recovered yesterday morning actually, but was happy to take the day off as always.  I enjoyed getting 3 solid sessions of compex active recovery per day on my glutes/quads/calves while laying around watching general conference the past 2 days.  That was really nice and I'm sure contributed to my feeling really recovered this morning.

Interesting quotes I heard today while listening to 'Outwitting the Devil' by Napoleon Hill while cranking out some mile repeats this morning.  That is a pretty fascinating book that was published this year by the author of 'think and grow rich' long after his death and after being hidden away for over 70 years.

"Faith is a state of mind wherein one recognizes and uses the power of positive thought as a medium by which one contacts and draws upon the universal store of infinite intelligence at will."

"Faith is definiteness of purpose backed by belief in the attainment of the object of that purpose."

Oh yeah...running. 

The workout this morning called for specific endurance intervals: 3 miles easy, 6 x 1 mile @ 10K pace + 5 sec/mile w/3 min. active recoveries, 3 miles easy - Here were my splits for the miles going up and down on marshall road.  The odds are up, evens are down.  Splits: 5:55, 5:47, 6:03, 5:36, 5:56, 5:39.

I wasn't too concerned about what pace I was hitting, other than just trying to keep it underneath marathon, and closer to half marathon pace.  So none of the repeats were very challenging.  But I don't think they were supposed to be.   

Easy 7 mile loop then 2 miles easy with Nan after we ran the kids over to school.  It makes me happy to see her running again, even if it is only a couple miles at this point.

Oh yeah, and I saw 4 bears cross the trail 100 feet in front of me down on S. Boulder creek.  Just before sunrise.  That was really cool.  A Mom and 3 cubs.  The jumped a fence and ran up the creek away from me. It was really surprising to see bears out in the flat lands.  Well to see bears at all, is rare, I haven't seen any yet since living here until now.  But I certainly didn't expect to see them out in the low lands.

Easy 14 miles out marshall road and then up to the top of eldorado springs and back.  Another beautiful fall morning.  With the cool 60 degrees, gorgeous sunrise, the rolling hills leading up the canyon with impressive cliff vistas, and legs that don't have any nagging issues at all, I couldn't help feeling fantastic this morning.  I'm very grateful to be healthy and able to enjoy every morning out running.

Easy running again.  3rd day of easy in a row, because tomorrow I'm going to attempt 26.2 Kilometers at marathon pace on my marathon course. Tomorrow's run will probably be pretty telling on whether I'm in over my head at 6:06 pace or not.  

Today I had a feeling that I should not run through the gulley into skunk canyon but run around a a few hundred meters and come up the sidewalk.  Interestingly as soon as I came up the sidewalk for coyotes were coming out of the gulley where I would have run through.  I stopped and watch them for a few minutes as they did their thing running around the hill side back and forth.

Then I ran up the hill and came across 4 deer who didn't want to get out of the path on enchanted mesa.  So I walked right up to them as they stared at me wide eyed.  Finally they walked off as I motioned for them to move on so I could keep running.  One of them could barely move as its back leg was clearly hurt and it limped its way across the meadow.

Pre-dawn running lately never seems to fail on the wildlife sightings. 

5 weeks out from November 12, my goal marathon date.

Today I did a 26.2K (16.3 Mile) marathon simulation workout by running two loops on my course, then adding 3.2 out and back.  Did 2 mile warmup, then 16.3 miles, then 1.7 cool down.

Splits:

• 1st Loop (6.55 miles): 40:05 (6:07/mile, pretty much right on target)
• 2nd Loop: 40:39 – slipped off goal pace slightly (1:20:44 half marathon split – 6:09/mile avg)
• 3.2 mile out and back: 22:25 (7:00/mile avg for this section, drastically fell off pace.)
• Total: 16.3 miles – 1:43:09 – 6:19/mile avg

Any thoughts on what my marathon goal pace should be at this point by anyone reading are welcomed and appreciated.  My desire is to set a realistic but stretching goal for a marathon time running this same course in 5 weeks from now.  And now that I have somewhat of a bench mark workout to go off of, I’m interested to hear other’s thoughts.

For whatever its worth, I have been running between 70-75 miles most weeks, with 6 days of running per week.  Sundays I always rest from running.  With a lower week every 3-4 weeks.  This week was 74.

Up until now my pie in the sky goal has been 2:40 (6:07 pace).  Hence the goal pace today of 40 minutes per lap to see how I managed at that pace on a simulation run.

Today I was wearing tights, a jacket, beanie, and gloves because it was high 30′s and drizzling this morning.  I self-supported it and was wearing my nathan pack with 30 oz. of water and 2 10 oz. flasks of half dilluted EFS liquid shot.  I only used 1 and a quarter of the 2 flasks, perhaps 250 calories for the 1:43 of running.  Enough/not enough?  Energy felt fine, but perhaps another 100-150 calories would have given my legs more the last 3 miles.  I didn’t drink a ton of the water.  Probably only 12 ounces of the 30.  It wasn’t hot at all of course, but my clothes were still soaked with sweat under my light jacket.  Including the EFS flasks a total of about 24 ounces of fluid was taken in.

As far as heart rate and breath rate are concerned the run was never that challenging.  My legs just got tired and started feeling less strong the last few miles.  My hips/gluts started feeling pretty worked at mile 15.1 so I backed off quite a bit for a minute or two, then picked it up slowly again, but my last mile split was really slow due to that, 7:40 something.  Plus I allowed myself to bail mentally on the pace at mile 15.1.  I didn’t want to drive it so hard so as to hurt myself…I figured I should save the hard driving for the actual marathon attempt.  I’m sure I’m going to have to push through a similar point of growing weakness somewhere in the last 7-10 of the marathon.  I’m willing to push through that necessary pain in my race attempt, in a workout I don’t feel that it’s in my best interest to go there.

PS - just noticed I just cracked 2000 miles on the year...cool.  Only hit 1438 last year, I may come close to doubling that it this year, we'll see. I don't really care and don't have a yearly 'goal', but its interesting to see how quick the miles stack up with consistency of running.