Some Days You're the Bug, Take 3

And today I was the windshield! I haven't felt this good on a run in a long time. It was effortless, and I was flying. It's days like this that keep you in the game for a long time. It's like golfing: you can struggle through a round, hating everything about the game, swear you'll never play again, then hit one sweet iron to a couple feet from the pin and spend the next five years chasing that feeling again.

I felt really good after yesterday's ride, but I didn't get a lot of sleep last night. (The Olympics and a great UFC fight card will do that.) I was able to drag myself out of bed by 7:30, and by 8:30 was hitting the road. It was a short day, just 10 miles, so two loops of the hilly course. I settled into a nice rhythm, and checked my time at my first checkpoint. Usually on a first lap, I'll get there around 7:45, and about 7:15-20 on the faster second lap. Today, 7:19. Wow, that's kinda quick. Maybe I should ease off a bit. Or maybe not. The second checkpoint was 35 seconds faster than most second laps (23:10 vs. 23:45). From here to the end of the lap, there are two big climbs, so I kept it ridiculously easy up both. I still finished the lap at 41:00. That's my fastest first lap ever, and third fastest ever.

So then I had to go out for a second lap. It needs to noted that all of this was easy running. I wasn't pushing hard at any time. The hills I gave a slightly harder effort, but on the flats everything was at 4-4 breathing. This would have been at what Maffetone/Allen would call Aerobic Threshold (AeT), about as hard as I could go without actually going hard. This time, first checkpoint was 7:06, second was 22:45. I allowed myself to go 3-3 on the tough climbs, and pushed the pace for the last kilometre. When I stopped the watch, just hoping I was still negative splitting the run, I was at 39:28. The first time I've cracked 40 minutes, and a PB by about 75 seconds. The pace was roughly 7:30/mile over very hilly terrain, and I could have kept going for quite a while.

The legs are coming back. I'm going to have a useful weapon in five weeks. I will move up the race pretty well if I can pull something like this out on the day.

Run: 10.5 miles, 41:00/39:28 + 4 strides