Long tempo run. Average pace 8:07.
Weather: 19°F (I think maybe it was warmer than that by the end), 73% humidity, no significant wind.
I'm dead. Sasha killed me and then he killed me again. We did a mile and a half warm-up at about 9:00 pace, then he wanted me to do an 8-mile tempo at 8:00 pace. I managed to hit just under 8:00 pace, but I was pretty beat by the end. He let me cool down, again around 9:00 pace for a mile and a half, and then I had to run fast the rest of the way, because the virtual 8:00 pace girl was chasing us with a knife. Sasha encouraged me to relax and be like a car that was low on gas and was trying to make it to the gas station. Later, he told me that the stop sign was a magnet and was pulling me, and then it was a corner, or a car, or different things until we finally got back to his house. At various times during the run he would be ahead of me a little ways and put his hand down and I was supposed to run up to him and give him 5. Some of the times it took me a while to get to him, but I eventually did it. Other times he would ask me to pick up the cadence, particularly when going up small hills. From my performance in these exercises he concluded that my leg strength is good and it's my aerobic conditioning that is limiting me. He says I just need to keep running and my aerobic conditioning will improve.
Mary Ann, Jeff, and Matt were with us, though they each peeled off at different points. Thanks to everyone for carrying my hoody and fuel belt that I was foolish enough to bring with me.
After the run I got to go hang out at Sasha's house a little bit, meet his kids, and have a banana and some really yummy raw coconut pie that Sarah made last night. I got to hold their baby. He's a really cute, smiley guy.
I didn't hit my lap button when we started the tempo, and we started it after 1.5 miles, so the mile splits recorded by my Garmin are offset by a half mile from what they should be. In any case, here they are: 8:56, 8:32, 7:54, 7:53, 7:47, 7:51, 7:42, 7:41, 7:47, 8:42, 8:58, 8:02, 8:01, 8:09, (for the last 0.64) 7:54.
I mentioned the running camp idea to Sasha.
Thus ends my fastrunning week. I am beat. I plan to do a really easy, short recovery run tomorrow morning before getting in the car to drive back to Colorado.
One more funny thing. When I got back to my inlaws' house after the run, my mother-in-law asked if I walked with those people again. I just told her that it wasn't walking. She really doesn't understand what I'm doing. Nobody in my family does. That's why I need the blog.
**Update**
Sasha and his brain kept better track of what I did than my Garmin did. The following is copied and modified slightly from Sasha's blog: I ran a mile in 7:57 and then picked it up to around 7:40-7:45 range. I finished 8 miles in 1:02:13, average of 7:46.6. Then I jogged a mile in 9:12 and a little more at about 9:00 pace. As soon as the 8:00 girl caught us, Sasha had me go after her and PR in the half. I ended up running 1:45:20 for the half, a 4 minute PR on a slower course beating my Moab time 6 days ago. | 