Difficult day today, but managed to fit in the miles. The speed workout had to be done early as usual. Just wanted to do 2x0.75 miles near my house on very mild rolling hills at 5 K pace. However, for some reason, I can never run fast on that road. It does not seem like it rolls that much, and I have measured the distance several times to make sure it is accurate. Figured it would help to do a couple of quarters at that effort first to warm up, as early as it was. Did them in 79, and 77. Then a 0.75 in 3:53, and the next one in 3:52. Then I di d not feel quite done yet, and did 2x0.5 in 2:35.5, and 2:35.1. Jogged some more to make it 9 miles for the whole run. Legs felt a little funny after wearing ankle weights for two days in a row. Decided to give them a break today. Then went to the temple, and then straight to see a client in American Fork. Got home after 6pm, did my always on the run mile with ankle weights (finally!), ate dinner, then ran with Benjamin and Jennifer. Dropped them off, did some more running with a double stroller and Julia and Joseph in it. 7:00 pace felt good with it in street clothes (T-shirt and long pants), good sign. The stroller has new unpunctured and properly inflated tires, which makes a big difference. Wondered what my threshold pace would be with it, and picked it up a bit on a quarter to feel it. 1:29, 5:56 pace. About 6 months ago, I tried a 5 K pace effort with the same stroller, but flat tires, and a slightly higher weight (Jennifer and Julia) and could only get 6:30 pace. I am in better shape now, but maybe 5 seconds per mile or so. Some improvement on the dream front. Seemed like a big one - I was in the lead of the Boston marathon with nobody around me. However, after I've thought about it for a while, I realized it was only a weak attempt of the mind to get to where it is supposed to be. The race looked more like a smaller marathon. There was no police escort, the crowd was too small for Boston, there were no sub-5:00 splits, and the pace felt way too slow and easy, more like 5:40. So the mind was saying "win Boston", but not doing "win Boston". It got directions to shape up to believe I could run fast, but it attempted a shortcut to execute or rather circumvent those directions. I am now beginning to understand the experience I had before Richmond 2003 marathon. I prayed to know what to do, and felt the impression to go out with Elly Rono until the pace felt so fast that I did not think I'd be able to finish a marathon if I continued any further. I did exactly that - fortunately, Elly took a while to warm up. We did 5:39, 5:24, and then 5:20 up a slight grade. I backed off in the middle of the 4th mile, stayed at 5:30 pace up to mile 15, PRed on a flat half marathon (1:12:09), and then gradually eased into a premature cooldown to finish in 2:31:45 taking 7th. I am now understanding the importance of that exercise. Sometimes (maybe always?) your mind needs to make a breakthrough before your body does. You need to have "dream" races where you go out with somebody out of your league, and hang in there until you puke to get your mind to want to be there. Then somehow your mind starts sending constant signals to your body to change, and if it does so for long enough, and you back it up with proper training and recovery, the physical change eventually happens. | 