LM warmup (10 reps), 6 miles in 44:16, 7:22/mi, HR 156, w/ 2 mile warmup, 2 tempo miles in 6:58 & 7:08 (uphill), 2 mile cooldown, 6 x Strides & stretching. Got out early while it was still foggy and cool (60F) with only a touch of sun and some humidity. Felt quite a bit better today....more energetic and rested. Still not quite 100%, but enjoyable and I'll take it. One more day to rest and recover. I've had a difficult time setting goals for WR50 this weekend, essentially because the terrain scares the crap out of me. Actually, it's not the mountain we run up and down in the first half....that I know I can do. It's the mountain we run up and down in the second half, *after* having run the aforementioned first half. I'm still not at all confident I've trailed well-enough to handle all the climbing and descending, but it is what it is, and some goals are called for, so here they are: - Realistic. 8.5 hours. I'm basing this on an extremely limited set of comparable athletes that have run this event in the past that are in my ability group. Honestly, a lot of things will have to go right for me to have a good chance at hitting this goal, to include the weather, which for now looks like it'll cooperate for the first half of the race, but maybe not the second half. Guess we'll see...
- Shoot the moon: sub-8 hours. Based on nothing more than the believe that I have a sub-8 time in me on this course, without ever having run this course. But I think if the stars aligned and I'm well trained for what the course has to offer, I can probably run under 8 hours.
- Tough Day: Finish. A bit of a cop-out, but if things fall apart, I don't want to give myself any excuses to throw in the towel. Aside from a 13 hour cutoff, I plan to get myself across the finish line even if I'm crawling the last 23 miles. Hopefully it won't come to that.
So there they are for the record. Time for rest and some positive mental conditioning between now and Saturday. Gotta say, I think I'm about as nervous as a first-time marathoner waiting for this race to get here. Hopefully I won't make the same mistakes I did then :) | 