Cue music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgDrJ5Z2rKw&mode=related&search= James Brown's song "I Feel Good!" describes well how I feel after today's run. I ran the Eagles View run with Nathan and Tom. For the past few weeks I've been focusing on distance more than speed in preparation for the St. George marathon. Today I intentionally skipped my normal Monday morning run and decided I would push harder on the noon run. I didn't mention my intentions to Tom and Nathan. I figured even pushing it I might barely be able to keep up with Nathan (I was right). Tom had already run this morning, and commented that he wasn't going to hang with us when we "sprinted" because he's got a fast run planned for tomorrow. We started out pretty easy. I didn't mind because I wanted to loosen up. Then Nathan made a comment about the slow pace, and it gradually began to pick up. Nathan always pulls away on the long steep hill before the turn around. My goal was just to stay a little closer to him than usual. I stayed with him pretty well for most of the hill, but he pulled a little ahead at the end. We waited briefly for Tom then started the downhill return trip. We maintained a pretty good pace down to the State St. intersection. I decided I'd try to push the pace a little the rest of the way in once we got across the street. This is where Tom let us go and Nathan and I pushed ahead as we went up and down over the two overpasses and then pushed the last flat stretch back to Novell. I didn't have my Garmin, but I think our overall average pace was around 7:37/mi (not including the short stop times at the light and at the top). That's a pretty good pace for me for this run, considering the long steep hill. Nathan said our pace for the last 0.93 miles was 6:47/mi. I feel good about the run today. It felt good to run faster than I have been recently, and to feel so good doing it. I recovered quickly afterward and my legs feel strong. Maybe Nathan and I should try to push hard every run (at least when Tom's there) so he'll start telling his SF running buddies that he needs to take it easy with them to save up energy because he's planning to run with the Novell guys. (Just kidding, Tom)
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