High Speeds

Taper.

Taper.

This race I was gunning for sub 1:07. I started out with the leaders - the first mile was 4:58, then 4:56, then I missed mile 3 and had 20:01 at 4 miles. During mile 4 (uphill) I dropped back from the leaders, and was in third place. The next two miles were 4:51 and 4:58 for a time of 29:50 at 6. A little before 6 my right leg started acting up - I have been dealing with an issue where the right leg has a restricted range of motion. This appears to be a combination of a locked up SI joint and some tight muscles, but something deeper might be going on. The result of this is that some muscles in the left leg end up having to do more work. I've been seeing a physical therapist, and that has been helping - so the issue has been more strongly manifest at the end of workouts.

  Past 6 miles I was in uncharted territory. I wasn't sure how my legs would hold up - and was worried that the imbalance between right and left would continue to worsen. I also started to feel the heat. Remembering some recent workouts  in which heat completely derailed me - I decided to start dumping water on myself at every aid station. This ended up paying off. The next mile was in 5:03 (34:53). Still ahead of 5:00 average - good.

Apparent disaster struck in mile 8 - I saw 40:12 at the official marker. That meant a 5:19 mile - which did not bode well for the next 5. Combined with the heat, my legs, and the course flattening out, I was very worried that sub-1:07 was out of the cards. I began envisioning doomsday scenarios of 1:10 or slower. To add insult to injury, I got passed in mile 9 by a guy named Sergio (who I later learned was once a 2:13 marathoner and US champion). Fortunately, the next two miles were 10:18 for a total of 50:30 at 10 (so mile 8 was probably a tad long). I did the math and realized that all I needed was 5:15 pace to the finish in order to crack 1:07.

However, the next mile was uphilll. I knew that if I slowed down too much on the hill, it would be difficult to make up for it later. So I hammered it. Mile 11 was 5:16 - basically on pace! Then came a downhill mile in 5:03 - after that I knew it was in the bag. I was a around 1:06 at 13 and came im at 1:06:33 - 4th place overall. Sergio gapped me by around 25 seconds.

There were a lot of moments during this race when a blowup seemed eminent - fortunately the training, prayers, and dumping water on myself paid off. I'm very happy with this result - and am excited to see what the future holds.

Came down with a cold after the half on Saturday - super glad that didn't happen any earlier. Limped through 8 miles today.

Still sick.

First day of full mileage and pickup since getting sick.

Why is it that every race with "fun" in the name is anything but fun? I was still feeling a little under the weather today, so for the workout I just participated in a church "fun run" (for those outside of Utah, church events are essentially neighborhood events). The course goes down Palisade, then down Carterville - and then back. My time was shameful - 10:39 (5:05 down, 5:34 up). I blame the cold, plus running 10.5 miles before the race with Chad and my dad.

After 1.5 miles and going up that massive hill behind my house, it felt like a bad dream where you're trying to run from a monster, but your legs are made of Jello and won't listen. The monster in this case was Jacob - but fortunately he too was struggling and so I wasn't beat by a little brother :). That day will come (likely when Matthew turns 16 - heck, even 14 might be enough). But not today.

Today retried the 2-mile "fun run" course by my house - this time was better: 4:55 and 5:25. Total of 12.

Did 4x1 mile targeting 4:40 pace - hit the target for all of them, and didn't go faster than 4:36 for any. The goal is to make 4:40 the new 5K and ultimately 10K racepace. The rest was 400m except before the last interval when I needed to run a little farther to reach the water fountain. Total of 16.

Tried a 2x2 mile workout targetting 9:20 or 4:40 per mile. The first interval was something embarrassing like 9:41 - ran into some kind of governer/mental block. Which makes sense, because I've been focusing on the half marathon and doing most workouts at 5:00 pace recently. I was close to calling the workout a bust and trying again another day, but decided (with some encouragement from my daad) to still do the second interval - with the goal of going under 2:20 for the first 800m no matter what. The second interval redeemed myself somewhat - 4:40 first mile, and then 9:29 for the whole thing.

Will do this again Saturday, and will start the workout earlier.

In preparation for Murray Fun Days did a 2x2 mile workout with full recovery - 9:21 and 9:17. The pacing was fairly even - the second interval was a negative split (4:40 first mile). Total of 16.

The standard for my daily pickups has been raised from 5:00 to 4:48 - the goal is to make that the new 10K and half marathon pace. 

Today did 12x400 in the canyon, alternating down and up. The target for downhill was 66, for up was 68. There was headwind going up with complicated things a bit - got 66, 66, 67, 65, 65, 66 on the downs and 70. 72. 72. 68. 69. 69 on the up. It took a couple tries to figure out how to sprint effectively uphill - hence the speedup after the third uphilll interval.