Wayne and I unexpectedly ended up on a "Follow the Larry" run this morning. We started by going up the big hill on 2000 N then coming back down and heading north into Lindon near the Jr. High like we often do. When we got to the hill we normally go down, Larry told us to keep going up the hill which dead ends a little farther up. Shortly after we started back Larry told us to take a left turn which led up a very long and very steep hill. It turns out he was really just kidding. He thought we knew about the big hill and would refuse. We didn't know, and didn't refuse. I think it was after we reached the top of the hill that he referred to it as the "Follow the Larry" run. He ended up combining portions of various runs and at the end of six miles we ended up back in the neighborhood. It was really kind of fun. My legs felt surprisingly good this morning. I charged a couple of uphill sections and a couple of downhill sections (not very far each time) just because I felt like it. Granted, we weren't going very fast, and the "charges" were probably just getting up to marathon pace, but it was still fun. I'm driving the high school car pool this week, so I got to drive my daughter and her two friends to the high school. Then Karen and I (and our golden retriever) walked my two youngest daughters to the elementary school. What a fun morning (honest...no sarcasm). I love driving the car pool. I drove to the Jr. High for 10 consecutive years as my four oldest took their turns attending. Most years I drove everyday, some years I took turns driving with other parents. I've got a year off Jr. High to drive Sophomores to the high school this year, every third week. I'll return to the Jr. High drive next year for another 5 years for our two youngest. I've found driving my teenage kids to school is a great opportunity to get a glimpse into their social lives and get to know their friends. Sometimes I'm cool, and sometimes I just embarass my children, but at least I get to be a part of their lives just a tiny bit more. At noon I decided to burn a little of that excess energy I felt in my legs this morning. I decided to run to Kuhni Road, where it is straight and flat, and do some "get a feel for what marathon pace feels like" miles. I've done this in previous years and found it beneficial for me. I run at marathon pace effort, not at my target marathon pace, but what I think marathon pace is going to feel like on race day. I do this without looking at my watch until the end of each mile. I then try analyze the results and see what I can draw from them. Today I decided to run 4 miles at "marathon pace effort", with a mile warmup to get over to the road and a mile cool down to get back. My splits for the four "marathon pace effort" miles were 7:40, 8:03, 7:56, 7:59, and I averaged 8:12/mi overall for the six miles. Now the analysis (rationalization?): My goal pace for a 3:20 marathon is 7:38/mi, so I was pleased with the first mile (7:40), but I knew that I tend to run the first mile faster in these sorts of runs, so I wasn't surprised by the remaining miles being slower (7:59/mi avg). Here are some reasons I'm still optimistic about the results: 1. This pace would still be a Boston qualifier (sub-3:30) and only a couple minutes off my PR. 2. I ran nearly 60 miles last week (high for me), including a 22.5 mile long run on Saturday. I also ran twice yesterday (11.5 total) and this was my second run today (12.1 total). 3. My legs still feel pretty good after the run. I could have pushed faster but tried to stick faithfully to "marathon pace effort", a pace I could hold for 26.2 miles. I'm confident I could have held this pace for many more miles.
4. This course was flat, St. George is net downhill. 5. Extra energy always comes from somewhere on race day. It seems to be a combination of taper, carbo loading, aid stations, excitement, and drawing energy from all the other runners and the crowd. 7. I wasn't wearing very good shoes today (the oldest pair I'm still using). I have a better lighter pair (not quite racing flats) I wear for racing.
8. I plan to run by feel this year, without looking at my watch too much, maybe only at the mile splits like today. I plan to do some more marathon pace runs in the next week or two, but today helped me feel confident that I already have a pretty good feel for what level of effort I'll need to put forth to meet my goal. All of this analysis is probably meaningless except for the confidence it gives me to "go for it". I apologize if this entry is too long...but nobody told you you had to read it. :)
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