Woke up at 4:45, drank 2 glasses of water and had a banana and a peice of toast w/ honey. Tried to go to the bathroom but not much there. Left at 5 and picked Riley up in Lindon at 5:10. Got to the busses right about 5:30, waited on a stationary bus for a while, and we were up at the top by 6:20 if I remember right. Went to the bathrooms and started warming up at about 6:30.
2m warmup@ ~7:15, a few strides and a little extra light jogging
7am- Race started, Dave Taylor went to the front and I passed him sometime a little before the mile marker. Riley was doing a Fartlek, alternating 1k's MP and HMP... so in the second mile he passed me, then we pretty much passed each other back and forth for the first half of the race, maybe a little longer, before he gradually pulled away doing his workout. He gave me encouragement a few times which was nice and helped me stick to my goal of a new PR which was 1:07:58. I felt great in the beginning and was still averaging 5:06 pace halfway through the race. The lack of mileage and consistency, however, caught up to me pretty good by mile 10. The breathing was fine from start to finish... but the last 4 miles my legs got progressively weaker. I felt like I was loosing control of them and it was frustrating cuz everything upstairs, above the lowback, felt super easy! But my lowback tightened, my hips and quads weakened, and my legs started knocking a bit more. I now know what it feels like first-hand to not be strong enough to maintian proper form, and suffer biomechanically because of it. The big thing here is more mileage and workouts at that pace. The next thing would be strengthening exercises... single leg balance, hip control, eccentric hamstrings and those sorts of things. My workouts have been more aimed at closer to MP so I'm hoping to feel much more comfortable in the marathon in 5 weeks....but I also plan to go out very conservatively- not necessarily gunning for a PR. The lowback tightness I've been dealing with all week from being on my feet in the clinic so much. It's made me want to do a better job practicing what I preach and getting the right core exercises in. I was surpised I was still able to finish strong despite the legs going a little extra weird on me this time.
The splits: 5:04, 5:06, 5:17, 4:58, 5:01, 5:06, 5:12, 5:12, 5:17, 5:21, 5:26, 5:17, 5:21, 4:20 pace for .05m. (I thought it was weird my watch got 13.05... .05 short of a half and .1 short of what most USATF certified courses typically run on my watch... yet Run13's website says the course is USATF certified.)
After mile 10 or 11 I knew a PR wouldn't happen, so I stopped trying to hit 5:10's. Little did I know, the course would run a little short on my watch and I still ended up with a 5 second PR. But I think just focusing on keeping my place the last few miles helped me keep going better than focusing on my pace. I thought Travis Fuller was within 20s of me the last few miles, but he ended up finishing in 1:09:2x...about 90s behind me. Riley beat me pretty good and finished in 1:06:xx...5:06 pace is all I remember.
5m CD @ 7:24 to get 20 for the day!
Now I need to try and get some decent mileage the next few weeks to have the legs ready for 26.2 of downhill at UVM!
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