Denouement

My legs felt good waking up this morning, just a little sore from Saturday's 20 miler.  I do have some dull lower back pain, I think from the 2.5 hours of trenching and sprinkler work I did Saturday.  I took some Ibuprofen before my run. 

I ran a variation of the hill workout I did two weeks ago.  Two weeks ago I did mile long hill repeats, but I read in my Competitive Runner's Handbook that the distance for the hill repeat was too long because it makes the rest too long.  So I went to the hill and figured out how to shorten it during my warm up, which works well since both ends of the hill (beginning and end) are mostly flat, so the hill becomes shorter and steeper on average by shortening.  I started at 200 East and went to the Junior High sign, which is .67 or 2/3 of a mile.  I wanted to go just under 7:30 pace, since 7:26 is my goal overall marathon pace, and this is uphill.  That means the hill should be 5 minutes or less going up.  I wanted to do 6 reps, which I knew would be mentally tough because I was on my own, and two weeks ago I did mile repeats but only three.  So I decided that I would likely need a potty break somewhere in the middle so I would break up the workout into two sets of 3, thus making the workout somewhat easier but still a challenge for sure.

I got two miles of warm up in before starting the reps.

1 - 4:50 (7:16 pace). 

2 - 4:50

3 - 4:51

Between rep 3 and 4 I ran 1.37, including running to a gas station for a pit stop and running to the bottom of the hill.

4 - 4:58 Let myself zone out a little in the middle.  By the end of rep 4, jogging down the hill I told myself that I couldn't think about both the following reps right now, just try to do well on 5 and 6 will have to take care of itself.  Legs feeling tired (my quads are feeling it, not sure if from this workout or from Saturday).

5 - 4:51 I watched my pace closely in the middle which helped me stay on track

6 - 4:49 I again watched my pace but it was horrible at the start of the rep (headed for 8 minute pace at the top of the first steep part at 300 E).  I just watched my watch and didn't give up and shaved my pace down little by little.  The steepest part of the hill is at the end and I pushed it up not sure if I would even break 5 minutes but pushing hard, and actually got my best time.

Overall I am pleased with the consistency of the rep times.  Sure rep 4's time wasn't so great but I was happy I brought it down for 5 and 6.   I am hoping my endurance at higher speeds will be improved by these types of workouts.

8:50 overall pace.  I was planning on a nice easy recovery run today and my body sure told me it needed one.  9 minute pace was sure feeling good.  My legs didn't want to go any faster so I didn't try to, other than just trying to keep below 9 minute pace.

800's on the road tomorrow! 

This is my first non-hill interval workout on the road.  I wanted to do 8x800m @ 3:15 since my goal pace for the marathon is 3:15.   I met with Allison in SF and it was windy, but we warmed up toward the non windy side of town.

I did about a mile before meeting up with Allison, then we warmed up another .76, then started the intervals.

This is where a GPS watch is so useful.  I just have the lap pace in the big window and make sure that is 6:30 or better. 

1 - 3:14 (felt hard but like had to hold back to not overdo the first one)

We stopped and stretched after the first one, and jogged 2 minutes, then

2 - 3:08 felt much better than first one, fast because going downhill on Scenic Drive

3 - 3:12, felt good and like was still holding back

4 - 3:14, felt good but now starting to work to keep pace

5 - 3:16, had a hard time snapping into the fifth interval, so my pace was off on the first half and ran a significant negative split to close the gap, ran up the hill from river bottoms to upper SF neighborhoods during rest between 5 and 6

6- 3:14, was still cresting the hill by the time it was time to start this interval so had a little bit of uphill and I didn't feel quite rested, but felt better in the 1/2 half of the interval.

7 - 3:06, felt good

8 - 3:08 still felt good!

So I felt good about the workout overall.  I need to work on starting my middle intervals faster, but only went over my target of 3:15 once and that was by one second.  I guess next time (perhaps in two weeks) I will be doing 10x800m on the road. 

Ran down Payson Canyon.  Before deciding to go I ran downhill by my home a couple of times to make sure my knee could handle it.  Yesterday I started to feel some tenderness in one knee, not while running but after.  I couldn't feel the knee so decided to do the run.

From the start my legs felt sore, probably from Saturday's 20.8, Monday's hill repeats, then yesterdays 8x800 workout.  I just took the run nice and easy, staying in the back of the pack.  My average pace down was 7:28, with three miles 7:05 or faster. 

I felt fine except for sore legs.  I had an ice bath when I got home and plan to pop some ibuprofen.  I'll need to take it easy tomorrow so that hopefully I won't have dead legs for my race on Saturday (I am doing Top of Utah 1/2 marathon).

Easy run, my legs were very sore from Thursday.  I shouldn't have done the Payson Canyon downhill run yesterday for optimal performance on the half marathon tomorrow, but I wanted to train through this so I guess my legs are ok being a little sore.

I ran about a mile before the race at a very slow pace to wake my legs up.  Had Ibuprofen before the race because my legs are still sore.  I did some good stretching.  I met a couple of guys that are on the blog.  It's always nice to meet people face to face.

The Top of Utah is a great race, superior to Hobble Creek because there were plenty of buses toward the end and plenty of bathrooms at the top, and even bathrooms along the route (fortunately I didn't need one, but just knowing it is there is comforting). 

My low level goal was to be under 7 minute pace.  My higher goal was to break 1:30, which meant being quite a bit under 7 minute pace.  I didn't think that I could beat my best ever 1/2, 1:28:51 at 2006 Hobble Creek just because the course is not as down hill.

My strategy was to be at about 6:45 for the first 6-7 miles so that I could use that under 7 minute pace time on the remainder flat miles if I needed to go slower than 7 minute pace, so that I could average 7 minute pace or better.

1 - 6:40 this was a good start, but I could feel the jolt of starting into a fast pace, it took a couple of miles to feel comfortable

2 - 6:50

3 - 6:40

4 - 6:47

5 - 6:36

6 - 6:40 I took 1/2 a gu at 5.5 miles

7 - 6:30 last good downhill mile, got flat after this mile

8 - 7:01

9 - 6:54

10 - 7:00

11 - 6:56 feeling tired but strong.  This mile had some uphill in it, at this point I knew if I stayed strong I would break 1:30

12 - 7:24 suckiest mile, there was some uphill, sun in your face (thus sweat in my eyes).  I was headed for a 7:40 at first but just told myself if I could finish with a split of under 7:30 I would have a good time, so the second half of mile 12 was faster than the first half

13 - 6:36 crested the hill and went downhill.  I think I could have pushed this last mile about 10 seconds faster but just didn't feel like it at the time.  I was happy to decrease my time so much from the prior uphill mile.  I guess I was still a little weak.

.1 not sure, I measured the course a little short (13 miles and 89 feet).  They had the timer right at the corner and I stopped at the timer, only to see the finish line around the curve ahead about 10 yards away, this probably added a couple of seconds.

So the course is not as fast as Hobble Creek, but I ran it faster!  And with sore legs!  This is an overall 1/2 marathon PR for me and I am very happy with it overall.