I only run on days that end in a "y."

What an awesome day for a race.  A cold front came in last night.  I awoke to 55 degrees and a nice breeze with low humidity.  I could not ask for more.

I got up early.  The race was a late start at 9am.  I don't remember it being that late before.  I knew it was going to be crazy downtown as the race was sold out with 10,000 timed runners and 9,000 untimed runners.  I drove down 2 hours early and parked at Barton Springs pool and then did 1.7 miles warm up to the running club's annex.  I hung out there and met up with other runners from the group.  At about 8:15 or so we went out and did another warm-up.  We ran a loop to the starting gates but I had to job back to the annex to use the bathroom and then came back.  

I was not sure what I could do today but I did know I wanted to break 40:00 - that was my goal.  A good running partner, Kevin, told me he thought I could run in the 38:00's with how I have been running in training and that floored me.  I really did not think that was possible but he did plant a seed.  I have not run a 10k in 2 years so I was not sure what I could do.

Based on my goal of 39:50 I knew I needed to run 6:24's across the board.  This course is a steady and slow up to the state capitol building and then a sharp right with a big incline, a left and then after mile 1 another left followed by 2 miles of hills before the course turns fast - the final mile is a slight incline back into town.  My splits pretty much reflect this.

My strategy was to hit 6:24 the first mile and I was off - the timer read 6:44 or something and I panicked - I forgot about my chip time and that I was a few seconds back.  So I dropped the pace here and though the hills.  These were pretty tough but each steep hill is followed by a nice decline so the time can be made up.  I actually like hills so I did not slow down that much going up.  I was afraid this might come back to get me but it didn't.

I flew through miles 4 and 5 and at this time knew I had 39:00 in the bag and let my pace slip a bit.  I had no idea at this time that I could break 39:00 or I might have endured some pain and tried to push harder.  When I hit 6 though I dropped it and when I saw I had a chance at breaking 39:00 I ran hard.  My watch said 38:59 but I was not sure what my official time would be.  Well, happy to report that my official time is 38:57 - so I killed my last time and PR'd by almost a full 3 minutes!!

We ran 3 miles cool down afterward. 

Splits: 6:32, 6:20, 6:18, 6:05, 6:07, 6:15, last .25 @ 5:21.  Overall pace 6:14.

Can't wait to run a 5k to see what I can do.

In Las Vegas for a conference.  Took off towards the mountains though I never got that far.  10.5 easy, average 8:35 pace for the run.  

A shout out to the wonderful drivers of Las Vegas.  I had a several instances of drivers that actually backed up for me to cross a side road.  These drivers were waiting to get on the main road and when they saw me coming they cleared the road for me to get by.  Never had this happen to me before in my short running life.  Wonderful weather as well - low 60's, sunny and no humidity - dry as a bone.  

Someone pinch me - 50's and 29 % humidity.  Ran towards and past the airport.  I don't like running on the strip so I got off it as soon as possible.  Hit a nice long stretch - ran right past the airport.  There were a few sections of crushed gravel or grass next to the sidewalk and I ran on the softer surface as much as possible.  8:00 - 7:45 - most around 7:50 with last 2 at 7:17 and 6:55, .5 @ 6:57.  (My new MGP? lol!)

I started following Lolo Jones on twitter - she is an Olympic hurdler.  Love this tweet from her:

My legs are feeling a bit worn out - 3 big days in a row - so I went to the hotel gym this morning and ran 5.5 recovery pace miles on the treadmill followed by some core work.  

Saturday morning I am going to go on a helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam.  The helicopter lands at the bottom of the canyon for a 20-25 minutes for a quick snack/drink/look around.  I have not been since I was 5 years old so I am excited about it.  

Woke up at 6 am - only 6 hours of sleep.  I had Googled looking for a school close by in hopes that there was a track there.  I found a middle school that was a bit over 2 miles away.  I ran 2.7 easy only to find that there was not a track!  Oh, well, there were some nice wide roads around the school so I decided to use the road for 1000m repeats.  I ran 1000m easy to map out my course and then started.  My legs are still not 100%, I think I have been pushing it a bit too hard after Sunday's 10k without giving myself enough rest.  Tomorrow is definitely an off day.  

Anyway - I did 5 x 1000m with some active recovery or total rest in between depending on how I felt.  I looked up what I should be running these based on my 10k time and the range is 3:34 - 3:45 (5:44-6:02 pace.) That's a wide range.  I tried towards the faster end but did not get under 3:40.  Next time when my legs feel more fresh.

1000m @ 3:46 (6:10 pace)

1000m @ 3:40 (5:48 pace)

1000m @ 3:41 (5:54 pace)

1000m @ 3:42 (5:55 pace)

1000m @ 3:42 (5:55 pace)

2.25 miles back to the hotel @ 7:25 pace.

Uplifting video of our running coach:

http://www.youtube.com/TEDxAustin#p/c/1/kie6ArWL8Ug

 Last day in Las Vegas.  I finally had a pretty good night's sleep - about 7 hours and I only woke up once at 4:30.  I fell back asleep when my alarm woke me up at 6:00 am.  I probably could have sleep another hour or more. 

I got on the road about 6:30 and the sun was already coming up.  It was 82 degrees starting out.  The good thing is the low humidity.  Half way through the clouds came through and provided some cover from the sun. I felt very sluggish on the first half, definitely the first 4-5 miles and then I found my groove. Turning around early did cross my mind more than once. 

I had planned to run 14 miles.  But I got into a zone and when I looked at my watch my mileage was at 7.7 miles so I ran a bit further to a gas station to buy some Gatorade.  I loaded up my two fuel belt bottles and headed back.  I decided to try to maintain a 3:10 MGP pace on the way back. I tacked on a bit coming back to make it an even 8 miles.

First half of the run A/B miles:  8:35, 8:26, 7:57, 8:08, 8:03, 7:53, 7:51, 7:50.

Turned around and came back into town @ MGP pace:  7:17, 7:24, 7:14, 7:09, 7:04, 7:15, 7:15, 7:12.

Can't wait to get home and see the family!!