A.M. Total of 12.5. Did a workout with Benjamin. The purpose was to evaluate his aerobic conditioning, and to develop it. We did 10 miles from the house into the canyon, and then back alternating fast and slow miles. The target for fast was around 6:00, for slow no slower than 8:00. We started with a slow mile. Our fast mile splits were - 5:59 (up a small grade into headwind), 5:53 (up, less headwind), 5:50 (down), 5:54 (down), 5:50 (up to the house). The slowest recovery mile was 7:45. Total time for 10 was 1:08:13. This workout is difficult psychologically because you think you are resting, but in truth you are not quite resting. The first fast two miles took a lot of out of Benjamin and strained me as well because of the headwind and the uphill. However, I recovered faster - that is one difference between us. He can drop me in a 3 mile tempo, but because of the difference in aerobic development I recover almost instantaneously after a near maximum effort that, as my mother likes to say, makes me "see Paris", while Benjamin is not quite there yet, and needs more recovery even from a very much sub-maximal effort. So when we finished the second mile repeat he was hurting both physically and emotionally - uphill running into a headwind beats you up in both ways. On the way back he recovered some as we dialed down the effort, and was able to give it a good push in the last uphill mile making me work. With the better understanding of Benjamin's recovery process we decided it would be better for Benjamin to do a 10 miler at 6:00 pace on my regular 20 miler course on Saturday instead of the Uneventful Provo River Half. Then I ran 2 with Joseph and Jacob, while Jenny and Julia ran 3. Then I ran 0.5 with William.
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