Kinda guessing at the distance on my first run; forgot to recharge the Garmin, which of course died, and had to semi-measure it afterward using car odometer. After yesterday's howling wind, today is much more pleasant: 50 degrees, sunny, very light breeze, absolutely cloudless sky. Even ran in my sunglasses, which I basically never do, and my hat instead of the everpresent headband. Anyway, the odometer says 3.1 from where I parked to where I turned around, so I'm basically calling this one a 10K. Took me somewhere in the 56-57 minute range, and, as usual, I'm pretty sure I ran the second half faster than the first (just hope I have the discipline and good pacing to do that in Newport). Just an easy, no-muss, no-fuss recovery run, and legs felt pretty good after yesterday's exertion. Good night's sleep on the foam helped. So I'm thinking back to Chile Pepper, my first lame attempt at a race in this running life. Not in good shape, went out way too fast, crashed and burned, and finished 10K in 57 minutes. Today, a RECOVERY RUN (which really felt like a jog) was faster than that. Went back to the boathouse at dusk after watching Tiger win another one for my second run, a 5. Five turned out to be 5.71, and I tried a little experiment: Imagine that I'm at 24.5 at Newport and I need to run the last 1.75 in less than 14 minutes to get my BQ. So I ran in it 13:22, including 7:13 pace for the last .75. I may be doing quite a bit more of that in the next eight weeks, since I'm now 62 days from the race. Practice putting the hammer down when I'm tired and I have to suck it up to get there.
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