AM. I ran the water tank hills with Wayne and Larry. I really enjoyed the cool weather this morning. It seemed to help me run better. It was dark again as we headed up the hills, but I had my headlamp this time. I ran the 5 hills (climbs from 4900 ft to 5600 ft in 1.4 miles) in 14:55 and felt...powerful. I think this is easily my fastest time up the hills. I thought last week's time of 16:15 was close to a PR. I ran the last "fast mile" in 6:09. The rest of the run was at an easy pace. The run is normally six miles, but I got in an extra 0.75 miles when I pushed hard up the hills and on the "fast mile" and then looped back. It was a good morning. PM. I ran the 10K Lake View route solo at noon. I thought about doing some tempo miles, but when I first started out I felt some pain in my right hip and my legs felt sluggish. I ran the first mile in 9:41. Once I got warmed up, and off the trail and onto the road, I started moving a little faster. I ran the next two miles in 8:16 and 8:13. Since I didn't feel like running faster, but knew that I probably could, I decided it was a good opportunity for some mental training. I decided to run the next two miles as "focused" miles, or "Hal's pulling away and Josse is gaining on me hang in there and don't let them beat me" miles. I focused on keeping my feet turning over (about 180 steps/min), maintaining form, and keeping my momentum moving forward. Since I was focusing on effort and form, not pace, I didn't look at my watch until I was done. I was pleased to see that the splits for those two miles were 7:06 and 7:06. I quickened my pace by over a minute per mile and kept it steady for two miles by simply mentally focusing my efforts. Knowing I can do that gives me confidence when things start to get hard in a race. I cooled down the last mile in 8:15 and averaged 8:06/mi overall for the 10K (50:13).
If I run the Spanish Fork half this Saturday I'll probably have plenty of opportunity to mentally focus. It's a tough course and I think it's pretty likely that both Hal and Josse will be running it. Hal beat me soundly at Hobble Creek and Josse was right on my heels. I don't know if I'm up for the mental challenge of facing them both again so soon. (JK - it's just friendly competition, right?) BTW, I last ran the SF half back in 2005. I finished 4th in my AD, 23 secs behind the guy who finished 3rd...Hal Amos...who I didn't even know at the time.
As of today I'm planning to run it, shoot for sub-1:32 (I ran 1:37 in 2005), and see if I can hold off either Hal or Josse. At any rate, it should be a good barometer of what I can expect at St. George.
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