Tempo run with Ted in the morning. Short warm up. Good weather, ideal conditions. Little cold maybe, 55 degrees or so, no noticeable wind. Tapering this week. My standard routine is to run short aggressive marathon pace tempo runs at this stage. Ran the standard 5 mile tempo except at a lighter effort. Was lazy out of the blocks, first 200 in 45, first quarter in 1:28. Then started winding it up. 5:42 at the mile, next mile in 5:38. HR hovered around 145 up to 1.5, then gradually made its way to 150 by 2 miles. 14:09 at the turnaround (2:49), next quarter in 1:28, then 1:25, 17:02 at 3 miles (5:42). HR hit 154.Up to this point the pace felt rather relaxed, but now I started feeling some sourness in the legs. In the past this would result in having to apply a greater mental effort to hold the pace, and often even the top mental effort would not be enough - HR would stagnate or even drop, and so would the pace. So I applied a greater mental effort. Next 0.5 in 2:49, followed by 2:47, 5:36 for the mile. HR gradually progressed to 159. The legs were still feeling sour, but I felt in control. Now I was 2 second ahead of the 5:40 guy, and decided to relax a bit. Not much relaxation on the uphill quarter - 1:26, HR at 160. Next quarter in 1:25, HR dropped to 158, but this was not a forced drop, I just relaxed to make it a more honest marathon pace. This was followed by 1:26. Now the 5:40 guy caught me, time to show him who's the boss. Sped to to 1:23 on the last quarter, HR hit 162. 28:18.6 for the whole run, last mile in 5:38, last 2.5 in 14:09, even split time wise, but really negative 7 seconds in terms of effort. I was happy that my body responded to the sour legs condition with an increased HR instead of just quitting. I wonder if my cardiovascular training has been lacking somewhat due to the refusal of the nervous system to push harder past the 5:40 barrier. I am going to do a few more of those aggressive marathon pace tempo runs to deal a few more crushing blows to the sour legs syndrome. Ran with the kids in the afternoon. Jenny ran a mile time trial. She is 6 years old. At the age of 5 one day (shortly before turning 6) she decided to show off her running ability to her babysitter and run him into the ground. He had to hang on for dear life on that run, and so did Benjamin. She ran a 7:41 mile. Since then she had not broken 8:00 until today. We've tried several times, but she kept having confidence issues not believing that she could hold the pace. Yet once in a while she would do maneuvers during her runs that clearly indicated that she was not any less fit that she was before. We had a talk about faith and confidence, and taking a step in the dark before the light comes. Then I took her to the Provo River Trail. We did the run on an out and back course, first half about 0.5% grade up, then the same grade down on the way back. Not a fast course. I gave her a goal to break 8:00. She ran 7:40 breaking her record by 1 second. Her splits were 1:56 - 1:59 - 1:55 - 1:50. I just realized that Ogden Marathon does not do day of race packet pickup. That means I have to find a place to stay. All I need is some floor space at somebody's house. Ideally for three people - Ted, and possibly Steve Ashbaker in addition to myself. The host gets lots of free running advice, personalized training plan, a Russian lesson, a chance to visit with a real military helicopter pilot, and whatever else we have to offer.
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