Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

Thanks Joe, feels great to be back!! From the looks of your log, looks like you'll coast to your HM goal. Good luck this weekend!

Don't want to screw up your race planning, but you look quite a bit quicker than 1:45.

Ray - thanks, and good luck in your preparation for the half as well.

Flat - if the wind is up I think 1:45 is actually about right (if I'm lucky). My 10K was windless so I don't want to pay too much attention to it for comparison sake. Still, if we get decently low winds I'm actually planning on taking it out around 7:45-7:50/mile this weekend and see what happens. I can always slow down if it doesn't seem sustainable at the end and I'll have a couple minutes pad. Does that sound smart/dumb? I'm a bit inexperienced in running "strategery."

Your plan sounds smart to me, not that I have run that many races. I was just ga ga over your 6:32 for mile 4. If that is a true 5K speed (I know you are doubting that, and it is good to be conservative, but you ran 6:32 and felt good, no getting around that), then you are probably faster than 1:45, maybe even quite a bit faster. You are right though, the wind has to be respected. It slows me down without even knowing it, even if it isn't head on. It's like carrying extra weight.

I guess we'll see what race day weather gives me. Relatively speaking, my times are bound to be faster the shorter the race gets since I don't have much of a base yet, so I'm thinking about that too. And like I said, I did pick a nice mile with a little downhill. But I was excited that it was so smooth, for sure. Thanks as always for the inputs.

I agree with flat. I think you are on the conservative side. With your times you are alot faster than you think. Have confidence in your training and you will do great!

I think your race strategy sounds good. I think start at 7:50ish pace--this will be hard in the first mile or two though because race day magic 6:30 pace feels like a piece of cake so it is easy to start a lot faster than you feel like you are going. So anyways hold the reigns in at first, find your happy pace, and if you still feel strong halfway drop the hammer. I read somewhere to think of a 1/2 as a 10 miler with a 5k race at the end. I am sure you will do the right thing! It is definitely better to start conservative and finish strong then start too hard and die a miserable death at the end. I agree with all of the above--I think you are in better shape than 1:45.

Good run Joe! Depending on if you decide to do any warm up miles before the race, I would start out slower than HMP if you don't do a warm up for the first 1-2 miles. Once you set in the HMP and get in the groove, the last 3-5 you could probably hit 7:30's or faster. I always feel better when I finish strong and hammer the last few miles.