Because today is a holiday (no work or school) my family stayed up late playing Bang! (an Old West-themed card game from Italy). I slept in and was going to run at 9:00am but ended up not getting away until about 10:45am. I decided to run up towards the canyon and try to get in 10 miles at an average pace of 8:30/mi or faster. Shortly after I started an elite-looking runner who was also running up 1600 N on the other side of the road passed me quite easily and was pulling away. I picked up the pace a little but soon turned towards the high school. I thought he might be running over to 800 E and then down to 1200 N. If so, our paths would intersect there again. It caused me to push the pace a little faster than I would have, but he got there well before I did. I saw him cross through the intersection and by the time I got there he as a block or more down the road. Oh well, it got me pushing the pace early in the run. About 4 miles into the run I was averaging 8:20/mi and feeling okay so I decided to go 12 miles instead of 10. Then I realized if I went to 6.55 miles before turning around instead of at 6.00 miles I could get the half marathon distance in. That's the great thing about an out and back route, once you go out a certain distance, there is no shortcutting the distance back home. My mile splits out were: 8:01, 8:22, 8:15, 8:28, 8:53, 9:14, and 9:29/mi for 0.67. The pace got slower the last 3.6 miles as I got to the canyon trail that was covered with a thin layer of slush, just enough to make the footing slippery and unsure. I concentrated on keeping my center of gravity centered over the contact point of my stride to prevent the magnitude of a lateral force in any direction from exceeding the frictional coefficient of the slush...I tried to keep from slipping and falling down. This seemed to make it more difficult to keep my pace up. My splits back were: 8:55, 8:49, 8:22, 9:11, 8:55 (0.5 mile). I then reset my lap to measure the last two miles home, which were: 8:06 and 7:58. The slush again slowed me for the first 3 or 4 miles until I got back up 800 N and off trail and back on the streets. I had to work hard to keep my pace up, and felt pretty good about the last two miles considering how tired I was. My overall pace was 8:36/mi for the 13.2 miles. I missed my goal of 8:30/mi, but with the slush and adding on 3.2 miles I still feel good about my efforts. At least I think I should be able to finish the Painter's 1/2 marathon in St. George on Saturday a bit faster than today. There may be rain (dang it!) but with the possibly warmer temperatures, lower altitude, a mini taper, and race day magic I'm confident (hopeful) I'll be able to go a little faster, maybe considerably faster. Regardless, I'm looking forward to another adventure and seeing what I can do.
| 