8:30/8:46/9:12/9:50/9:44/9:32/9:53/9:14/9:48/9:49/9:49/9:21/9:27/9:32/10:04/9:45/9:52/9:50
It's dumb to record all those splits since I wasn't going for speed. I had to run a few before Catherine showed up, and met Sasha & Jeff on the trail who came from behind asking 'how my legs were.' My legs felt fine (in that moment) it was my lungs I was still warming up. They invited me to run 6:40 for a quarter mile. I wasn't expecting that and wanted to be game, but all I could think about was the other 18 miles I needed to run with my bronchitis lungs. I made it almost the quarter, but I was really trying to get in some air toward the end and wouldn't (not couldn't) maintain it for the last 100 feet. They continued running and I just behind them for about another mile, then I had to turn around to meet Cathetrine at 7:30. The reason I put the splits in there was because I need to remind myself how much a (single!) fast quarter mile improves your over all time . If I can run fast only 1/4 of the time I could sustain a 8:30/8:40 pretty easily. This is what I practiced in my speedwork last Fall and it worked. But I've not had the lung capacity or energy to do my speed play for two weeks and I'm paying for it now. I've run strong, but it's not the same as pushing aerobic capacity. But for today I did get 18 under my belt with Catherine and pushed hard. The average pace was 9:37 (thanks to those 2 faster miles to begin with). But I have to say--I'm beat. I went from 50 miles/week to 30 back to 50. I just hope when I get over all this crud I'll be able to push my legs/lungs to do what I know has to be done. If not, I'd just comfortably go slower and slower. I don't mind running the Utah Valley marathon in 4:25, but I want to finish Boston in under 4 hours. We'll see. I really dug deep today just to get that mileage, but I felt way stronger than Thursday. That felt like progress. | 