A.M. Total of 14.1. Met Neal on the trail. We did my weird 2100 meter interval from the DI bridge to the Union Pacific bridge. The "dream" target was to average 5:00 pace through it. However, it was cold - 21 F at the start of the run. So that made it difficult. Also, the "dream" target assumed Neal would be able to hold it without problems, but he ended up having some problems today. So it went like this - 75, 74 for the first two quarters. The pace felt fast at first, the air was cold, and I was concerned that I might fade badly. But I got used to it as we went along and my confidence kept increasing. Our next quarter was 77, which was expected due to the tunnel under 820 N. The one after that started feeling easy, and for a good reason because we did it in 76, and it is a nice quarter. Should have been 75 with the same effort. Our mile split was 5:03. Around that point I started feeling comfortable enough to pass Neal. I hesitated some because I was not prepared for him struggling at this pace. So due to this hesitation I ended up with a 200 in 39. I was actually feeling quite good, but not good enough to shift gears from 5:10 to 5:00. So I ended up coasting for the last 300 meters in 58. It would have been a 57, but there was a girl on a skate board blocking the passageway around the barricade that I normally take, so I had to take the other one, which gave me a longer route and also resulted in a loss of badly needed concentration. The time for the "weird interval" was 6:40, which is 18 seconds faster than my previous fastest time this year, and is a 5:05 per mile average. Neal finished it in 6:46. Then we ran some more, and found Jeff Combs. He ran with us, then Neal went home, and Jeff and I went to get the kids. We ran 0.5 with Jacob, 2 with Jenny (Julia did 1), 1 with Joseph and Benjamin, and 4 more with Benjamin, so he ended up with 5. Jeff turned around and ran home when we had 1 mile left.
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