A.M. Ran a recovery 20 miler with Jeff if there is such a thing. I ran pretty hard long runs for the last several weeks, and Jeff was going to drive to Mesa afterwards, so we decided to take it easy. I decided to stop being a chicken and finally wear Five Fingers on a long run. I figured if I only run easy in them I keep learning barefoot form only at slow paces. If my fast miles happen in shoes, I will just keep unlearning what I learned in Five Fingers.
The warm-up was uneventful - 10 miles uphill from my house to Bridal Veil Falls in 1:14:41.On the way back we ran a mild 5 mile tempo down the Provo Canyon (first 3.2 miles) and then following the trail along the University Avenue for the remainder. We followed the magic triangle marks for distance. The mile splits were 6:01 - 5:52 - 5:43 - 5:40 - 5:26. Total time 28:42, 5:44 average. HR was 137 at 5:50 pace, 147 at 5:40 pace, and 153 at 5:25 pace. Early on we had more downhill and tailwind. This goes to show how much downhill and tailwind help on the economy end. Jeff was consistently 15 or so beats higher than me. What is interesting is that the last mile felt quick, like I was working. Shortly after we finished the tempo we saw a group of bikers. Jeff reported there were 21 of them. Of all things somebody could be thinking in the 16th mile of a 20 mile run counting people was not something I would have expected. He told me counting people in a group was his hobby. I was very impressed with this talent. Later I asked him how many people attended his Elder's Quorum in church last Sunday. He knew the exact number, he said it varied from 19 to 21 as people kept coming and going. With this talent he is going to make a great ward clerk, and he actually has been one. Also, when he and Kimia have 10 children he will never accidentally leave one of them at a gas station on a trip. Around mile 16 we were done with the post-tempo jogging and picked up the pace to get the run over with to around 6:40. My feet started to burn a bit. With a mile to go Jeff asked me if I wanted to run the fat mile. I did not feel like it at first, but then the thought of finishing the run 40 seconds sooner was more temptation than I could handle, so I agreed. So we ran our last mile in 5:58. Towards the end my HR was 155 at 5:50 pace and it was also warmer than 8 miles ago. Total time for 20 was 2:17:09, 6:51 average, last 10 in 1:02:28, 6:14 average. The feet did OK, there are minor blisters on the balls of both feet that will hopefully turn into nice callouses.
P.M. 2 with Benjamin and Jenny. Timed only the last 1.5 in 13:06. 1.5 with Julia in 14:30. Happy to be able to run barefoot at the end of a long day.
| 