AZ Run Dad

20 mostly easy miles.  20 miles is never "easy" but I kept the pace relaxed most of the way.  I picked it up a little the last few miles but not too fast.  I was really pleased with the way my body felt after racing yesterday.  It was just a 5k but usually I'm sore and today I felt pretty good.

Blog on yesterday's race

6 easy + 4 strides. A little stiff and sore to start but loosened up nicely and felt good by the end.

AM: 8 miles: No stiffness or soreness this morning but legs probably a day away from fresh. Just one workout this week and a race on Sunday. Nice cool air this morning. 7:03 avg.

PM: 4.25 miles: 4 miles in 29 min then 8 x a 10 second steep hill sprint.  Last time I did these my heart rate was so high and it took about 7 or 8 minutes to feel recovered after.  After the 1st one today I had the same feeling.  I figured out that I wasn't taking quick enough breaths and it was like I was holding my breath.  After I figured that out things went much better.  I'm not used to breathing like that when running.  Now I know why the 100m sprinters are so out of breath during their post race interviews. 

10 miles: Last workout before race this weekend. I was excited for this one because I haven't done a lot of half marathon pace stuff and I wanted to see how the pace felt. I've done a lot of faster (5k pace) and marathon pace stuff lately. Anyway workout was 6 x 1200 w/400 jogs. Splits were 4:05,4:06,4:10,4:10,4:09,4:09. Kept jogs to two minutes. First two were too fast then I settled in to the correct pace. This was harder than I wanted it to be. Maybe I was just expecting too much. Good workout. Just need good weather this weekend.

8 miles easy

6 easy miles + strides. Felt very good this morning. I'm ready to race tomorrow and after feeling a little flat early in the week I feel good now. My goal is to start with a couple of 5:40 miles and hope that feels easy. After that I plan on picking it up a notch to the 5:35 range. If all goes well my goal is 1:12:30-1:13:30. We'll see. Right now people are about an hour into the St. George Marathon. Can't wait to hear how everyone did.