This started out as a recovery run, but as I went along, I got faster and faster. Before I knew it, I was in the low-8:00 range and ended up averaging almost exactly 9:00 for the six miles. Legs obviously felt pretty good after 13 yesterday.
I've been reading Tim Noakes' book and his theory of a reprogrammable central governor that is the primary limitation on our performance in distance races makes sense. I think that's what I did for Memphis -- reset the popoff valve to tolerate low-8:00 pace. Now I just have to reset it again to, say, 7:35 and I'm golden.
Had a change in plan for the next race. No, it will probably still be Newport, but the family won't be going with me. Instead, the family wants to go to New England, or Canada, or both in the early summer. So it appears that I'll go solo to Oregon and then the family will head northeast, across the border if we can get the passports in time. | 