Warmed up with Ted. His foot is still hurting. Then did my usual Tuesday workout. First, 5x400 with 200 recovery, very slow jog, alternating directions on the quarter from 1 mile mark o the standard Provo River Trail tempo run to 1.25. 73.0 - 73.3 - 72.8 - 71. 8 - 71.0 - a bit slower than a week ago but felt fresher afterwards. Then jogged back to the start of the tempo. The goal again was to run each mile faster. This time I watched the pace more carefully, adjusting it with every 200 in the first 1.5 miles. Splits by the quarter: 1:22 - 1:23 - 1:22 - 1:22 (5:29) - 1:22.5 - 1:22.5 - 1:21 - 1:21.5 (5:27.5, 1:56) - 1:21 - 1:22 (eased off before 180, 13:39 at the turnaround) - 1:22 (recovering from 180) - 1:17 - total time 16:18.5, last mile in 5:22 - reached my goal. One second slower than last week, though, but a stronger finish.
Jogged to the start of the final part of the workout, same as the opener, exact same place, 5x400. 72.7 - 73.3 - 71.6 - 73.0 - 67.5. This part was faster than last week, and I felt a lot fresher on the last one. Last week on the last interval the limiting factor seemed to be heavy legs, this time it appeared to be more the lack of ability to turn on explosive power full blast. Cooled down, total of 14.75 for the workout. Ran with the kids in the evening, this brought me to 17.25 for the day. My current pace profile is getting to be rather odd: 5:40 - relaxing, 5:30 - comfortable, 5:20 - very hard, 5:10 - near death experience. High mileage, at least initially seems to make the paces up to 5:30 more relaxing, but does not do much for paces faster than 5:30 to bring them into the comfort zone. I need to figure out a way to bring 5:20 into the comfort zone.
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