A.M. Ran with Jeremy, Benjamin, Gary, and Ryan, a new running partner. Decided to do something different, longer intervals, but still quite intense. The wind was strong blowing out of the canyon. I started with 600 in 2:00 into the canyon. That was hard. Then 800 into the canyon in 2:45. I was headed for maybe a 2:43 but in the last 200 my heart skipped a beat, I got confused, and eased off the pace. I did those alone. Then I did the mile in the opposite direction. The target was 5:00. For some reason (lack of sleep, maybe overdid it a bit in the last few days on speed, although it does not seem like I did too much) I felt sluggish. Dragged myself through the first quarter in 76, that was all I wanted to do. Then gave myself a motivational talk and did the next quarter in 74. It was hard. Started to think that I was going to lose the steam, but I was able to maintain and did the next quarter in 75. Then with 200 to go I found another gear for some semblance of a kick, and Ryan was with me and he also found another gear. So he pulled me through the last 150 meters or so, and we finished in 4:59. Gary ran the first 0.75. Benjamin just did the first quarter, but then coasted fast enough to run the mile in 5:49. Then we did the usual 400 at the end up the hill. Gary was able to pull away from me by a couple of meters. I ended up with 71.5. Ryan and Benjamin made it to 300. I suppose Ryan was worn out from the mile. Afterwards I ran a mile with Jenny, and then picked it up to catch up to Sarah. I figured I'd use this as an opportunity to practice running relaxed. I am feeling something different in the hip, I am able to stand on the ground with more firmness. But how to use that advantage when running after having run for at least 25 years with the instability is a different question. It will take some practice. The cage door might indeed be open but the captive bird is in no hurry to fly to freedom. So I decided to put in about a marathon pace effort and see what happens. There was a strong headwind. Strong enough that I struggled with 6:00 pace on a net downhill. Ended up doing 9:08 for the stretch that I think is 1.5 miles. Then I ran with her and told her I would start going fast again when I needed to run 6:00 pace to the end to hit sub-8:00 average for the last 6 miles, which included an 8:53 mile with Jenny. Sarah was actually able to cut the fast segment to only a little more than 0.5 which I did in 2:51 in spite of the uphill. The quarters were 82, 85. I think on that stretch I hit good form and was letting the captive bird out of the cage some. The change from PT is that I am able to extend the right hip better, but it appears that that extension is not very helpful unless you fix the timings of the stride. I felt like I was slacking a bit, but it actually produced faster pace than when I tried to run hard. So perhaps the trick is to know when you are trying to hard and working against yourself. P.M. 2 miles with the kids. Jacob did 1, Joseph 1, Julia 2. Neighbor kids as usual.
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