After my less than encouraging result at the Riverton Half a few weeks back, I decided to try to see what I had with a time trial. I asked Sasha to pace me through the Provo River Half to a sub 1:20:00 pace and he graciously obliged (little did I know it was on his birthday). This time around I slept well and ate well throughout the week. Of course on of the caveats of doing a time trial with Sasha was that there would be now water and no fuel and definitely no fan fair. We arrived about a mile from the start at 7:00 am and proceeded to warm-up to the starting line. The temperature was a bit cool but not too bad for a tech-t and shorts (and there was very little wind). Sasha’s advice to me was to keep 6 minute pace as long as I could and let it drop back where I needed to. After resetting my watch and a ready, set, go by Sasha we were off.
I still have my watch set to auto lap every 1.5 miles (that way when courses are marked well I don’t have conflict with my watch).
Mile 1.5 – 8:54.76 (5:57 pace) - Sasha suggested that I probably should scale it back a bit and thus I did.
Mile 3.0 – 9:00.42 (6:00 pace)
Mile 4.5 – 8:48.97 (5:53 pace) – There is only so much restraint you can have on a nice rolling down hill
Mile 6.0 – 8:58.76 (5:59 pace) – On the trail during this stretch making our way to Bridal Veil Falls and not looking forward to a tough mile 7. I estimate my 10K time to be 36:52 (the fastest I have ran for at least 10 years)
Mile 7.5 – 9:25.41 (6:17 pace) – Hello wind and uphill! I tucked in behind Sasha and pressed on forward. The first 400 meters or so was tough but then is seemed to ease up a bit.
Mile 9.0 – 9:03.09 (6:02 pace) – This stretch still had a bit of uphill but most of it was down. I was rather surprised by this split and started to think that this was really going to happen.
Mile 10.5 – 8:43.6 (5:49 pace) – Apparently I recovered well from the hill. I came through 10 miles in 59:59. All I needed to do was run a 20 minute 5k and I had sub 1:20:00 beat. And, yes, I did the math in my head
Mile 12 – 8:50.53 (5:54 pace) – Not only am I hanging on but I am hanging on well. I am tired and my breathing is quite labored but I only have a little over a mile to go.
Finish – 6:55.83 (6:00 pace) – My Garmin put this at 1.16 miles but, nonetheless, not only did I slay the 1:20:00 monster but I took out the 1:19:00 monster as well. I set a PR for the half by 4 minutes and 19 seconds and well as a recent PR for the 10k and a sub 60 minute for 10 miles.
After a few moments of rest we proceeded back to Sasha’s house and met Benjamin along the way. After some discussion on the run it was decided that we needed to head back out (before returning to Sasha’s) to get in our 20 miles. After another slow and tired 5.65 miles we finally arrived at home base. My reward, the most refreshing ice water and banana that I had had in a long time. This time around I have some blisters and tired/sore legs. Thanks once again Sasha for pulling me through and Happy Birthday.
The next item up for bid is to break 2:50:00 at Ogden. | 