mile repeats

Last week after the 13 mi time trial, I toned it down a bit to help my body finish off the last of the infection. I did a decent amount of cross training between classes with sets of backpack push-ups, chair abs, and other inventions on the top floor of the engineering building. I also surfed a few times with P-dubs, and did a few short runs.

By thursday, the infection seemed contained, and I did a tempo run at the coyote run with Ben doing a gentle climb to the tree on Sullivan ridge at a decent pace, and then pushing the downhill to work on turnover. I probably should've worn road shoes since it was so runnable and 60% of the run was on pavement.

Saturday I ran conversational pace with Danimal out on the 18k loop for xterra.. I think we're both coming a long way with out trail running, we ran the full climb chattering (wheras last year it took a bit more focus). It was a good 1:29 easy run, and it let us know we're both ready to rock for the Xterra race coming up.. we'll see about going for another win as part of a last workout for Long Beach.

Sunday I waited till a bit later in the afternoon to run mile repeats along Pershing under the flight path. I wanted 7-10 repeats at 5:35. I ended up with 8 (w/3:30 rests) 5:32 :34 :23 :21 :21 :18 :17 :18. I really wanted to smooth out my stride and get comfortable at hitting 5:30 in flats.. and I did part of the time, but I think I had some nervous moments where I was slow over a 1/4 mile and tensed up and worked a little too hard to get back on pace. I was honestly surprised at the ease of running the last few under 5:20 where I really did start to get clean and smooth. I got hungry though, and concluded my stomach prefers shot blocs to gu chomps. (but then again I prefer gu over cliff shot gels)

Some people have suggested burt yasso's 800's to help me estimate my marathon time.. However I don't think I have the same path to success as other marathoners. My body and mind have so much endurance, that I don't think ten 800's does justice to my ability to hold pace for much longer workouts. Also, I don't have great turnover. Whereas a normal marathoner may try to build endurance on their 6:00 or 5:40 pace, I am just trying to find my 5:40-6:00 pace again, and am not worried at all about holding it. I know I could've done another 4-6 mile repeats on sunday at below 5:30, but I'm just trying to build "faster" twitch muscles right now.

Anything can happen raceday, but I feel like I'm ready to run under 2:40.. and possibly 2:30ish. I go over splits a million times in my head, and that 5:35-6:00 zone just seems so real to me in flats. I've never done nutrition at this speed/distance combination, but I feel like maybe 2 gu's and a endurolyte are all I need for the run. Still, I need to be able to not vomit them back up, and perform with just the right fuel-digestion effort ratio. It's sorta like keeping a sponge just wet enough, and a race car filled with enough fuel to make it just past the last lap. I'm gonna take a little risk in the lunar-racers too.. I need a strong stride to make it in neutral racers without knee problems..

We'll see about another workout tuesday or wednesday.. thursday will be easy, friday off, and saturday marking the course before the race on sunday. then it's 2 weeks to go! Official taper starts 11 days out.