Ryan Hall - 2.5 week from Boston...

removed because it plays automatically.

2 Forecasts looks good to me!

OFFICIAL BOSTON STRATEGY

s my plan for Boston to run a 2:59:59 or below. I created it, talked it over with my coach, adjusted, talked it over with my coach again for final adjustments.
The perfect plan is to run even pace throughout the course, but that's almost too much to ask due to the course layout. Definite disaster will occur if i take the first 5 miles way too fast, as it will kill my quads for the later miles and i'll just blow up and screw up my chances.
I will carry two pace bands. One with the even pace splits, so I can see where ideal is, and one with some adjustments here and there based on controlling the course.
Even pace gets me in with a minute to spare at 2:59:00, while the terrain adjusted gives me little wiggle room, but does assume plenty of slow down in the late miles.

You may need to click on the images to make them larger.



Coming in at 30 seconds under even pace time after 5 miles will be a HUGE victory.


The 15 and 16 mile speedups are ok. They're part of the plan.
My honest plan here is not to fade to 7 min miles from 21 onwards, but if I'm on pace at mile 21, it'll be sweet music to my ears to know that I can get into trouble and lose a whole minute over the last 6 miles and still come in under "destiny".
I won't tell you what my super secret goal is, but a somewhat intelligent person should be able to figure it out.

Wednesday Thursda : B - 5

Wednesday I met the guys and Nedra for an easy 8 miles that included a Karma loop with the pup. A beautiful sunrise greeted half way through which included Nedra and I identifying the perfect colors for a nap. Hopped into Barton Springs for a magical mystical leg soak.

Today we met and ran 3 mile warmup, 4 miles at MGP (all between 6:49 and 6:53) and then about a 1.5 mile cooldown.

Also have a pre race leg massage today which should feel sensational until she decides to punish me for not taking care of my calves, and hamstrings.

10 miles closer to Boston : B - 6

I took Monday off, and today we met up for 10 miles progressive today. It was a loosely defined progressive, so I opted to work on my marathon goal pace(MGP) again to really lock in how it feels.
Ran 2 miles warmup at around 7:45-8min, then 1 mile at 7:15'ish to start picking it up, then 6 miles at MGP at +/-6:50. I was happy to run the first one at 6:52 just by feel without anyone's GPS watches to put us on pace. I really concentrated on getting a good grasp on cadence, foot strike timing, and general speed. Ran the last mile as a mini cooldown at around 7:10 or so.
Bruce said the overall average for ten miles came in at 7:07. I'm happy with the outcome.

I put on my new shoes I'll be wearing in Boston, and clearly tied the left one too hard. Top of my foot was aching by mile 7. Still have 4 runs to adjust them to the perfect looseness then tie a hard double knot, never to come undone again. (Yes, I wear my road shoes loose, and my trail shoes a little tighter)

Best part of the run: Spent several minutes of the 7th mile just visualizing the last mile of Boston, really trying to grasp the feeling of running hard to the finish to come in under 3hours. Raising my arms as a winner. Getting my medal, then lying down on the floor. Legs up against a wall just smiling ear to ear. I even envisioned a conversation with some volunteer asking me if I'm ok. "Oh yeah, I'm ok. I'm just going to lie here a bit, if that's ok (with a big smile on my face)" I got chills and my hairs raised up, and a big big smile ear to ear. Whew! Can't wait to visualize it a few more times this week. : )

Tomorrow, I'll finally take a peek at weather forecasts for race day. I bet it'll be perfect like today's run; 48, clear, and no wind.

Paris Marathon on TV Sunday : B - 9

Versus is showing a condensed 1 hour coverage of last weekend's Paris Marathon tomorrow at 3pm CST. (Followed by super famous Paris Roubaix Cycling classic at 4)
Thank you John, for the insight.

In other news, I had a lackluster 16 mile run this morning. Just felt tired, cranky, sore, and never settled into a good groove. All paces felt fast, and my plantars in my left foot was in a foul mood for most of the first hour and a half of running.

It's ok, the long run the weekend before any marathon is always crappy, so it's all good. It was no surprise.

If you're bored, feel free to come by and paint anytime this weekend. Bring a roller. I can offer you water, and chips and salsa. Maybe even some cheese sticks if you do a good job. And I'll have the Masters or the aforementioned shows on tv. High Def plasma! come on! you know you want to!

7 miles at MGP - A mixed bag - B - 11

One mile warmup, one mile warmdown, 7 miles at Marathon Goal Pave (6:50) around Townlake.

Result... meh, a mixed bag. Took longer than just a mile to warm up, so the first 2 miles at MGP felt rough. Once we got to the gravel trail, it could a little difficult since there's no traction on a trail and I felt like I had to push off on every step to keep up to speed vs. on a road it's more of a "find your speed and then glide/flow along." Couldn't locate the mile markers along the trail for the first half. I know they're out there, but it was just too dark and the vegetation is too dense. It felt like Damon was going too fast, but as he had a GPS on, I figured I'd just keep losing consistent distance from him, and it would put me right where I wanted! Then I had to stop for a bathroom break.
Finally got over to the MoPac bridge water, and from there I spotted several of the 1/4 mile markers along the trail.. goal was 1:42 per 1/4. I clocked in on a few of these: 1.41, 1.43, 1.46, 1.40, 1.47, 1.41. I walk away pretty happy with that.

Off day tomorrow(Friday),
then 16 easy on Saturday,
then a 7 mile easy trail run on Sunday,
off on Monday,
then something coached on Tuesday,
7 or 8 easy on Wednesday,
repeat today on Thursday?,
7 or 8 easy on Friday,
travel/off on Saturday,
30 minutes (4miles) easy Sunday,
then RACE DAY MONDAY at 10am EST!

The plan is coming together.

Monday Tuesday Wednesday : B - 12

Twelve days out from Boston and people are now starting to ask : "Have you started looking at the weather prognosis?"
My official answer: I look at the temperature on my iphone weather app, when i get up at 5:30am Boston time, then if I remember I try to look at again at 10am Boston time to see how much it heated up. But as for weather forecasts, I refuse to even look up a website until next Wednesday. 5 days is about all I can give a weatherman in terms of ability to semi-half-ass predict with any uncertainty what my race day weather will be.

I did finally have my first little session of "unrest" over the marathon. Up until Monday, I'd been very relaxed, but for some reason, right around 3:30, out of nowhere my brain just switched to :"Holy Shit! We're 2 weeks out!". Since then, I've been feeling pretty relaxed and confident.

TAPER:
We have finally entered the Taper part of our training cycle. Click here if you want to know what Tapering is.
Classic tapers usually last about 3 weeks, but our training is a little more intense as we repeatedly test ourselves on weekends, and it seems like 10-12 days is about right. At least that's what we did for CIM, and I did great with that. I intend to pretty much duplicate that strategy again. Especially for next week.

Monday I took the day off, and took karma for a 30 minute walk on the greenbelt. He was full of energy, and I had the best time playing Hide and Seek with him, since he kept running ahead. I'd duck in behind a big bush or trees, and he'd then sprint one way, the other way, this way, that way, looking for me. It's a little mean, since I can see him freaking out over not finding me, but then when i pop out, he immediately knows it was all for fun and we continue on our hikes.

Tuesday we ran a total of 8 miles, of which 5 were at CV (critical velocity) pace. Pretty much translates into 10 seconds slower than 10K race pace, which for me is right around a 6:20min/mile. I didn't start/stop my watch at all, and instead just stayed relaxed and ran by feel. Bruce said we were "right on track", but since I don't recall discussing paces with him at any point in time, i'm not sure if his "right on pace" and my 6:20 were in synergy. In anycase, I felt great, and tested out some easy accelerations here and there, changing up my form, concentrated on real easy and relaxed breathing etc. A good and short workout.

Wednesday. Today, Bruce, Ken, Damon and I went for a run and ended up with 10.5 miles. Highlight was stopping to check out the permanent bleachers they're installing at the stadium. We wanted to walk up to the fence line to get a closer look, but some construction worked manager who apparently hates his life, or likes to boss people around, wouldn't let us get any closer. Karma's a bitch, buddy. I bet your day is sucking today.

Thursday is a rumored 7 mile steady state run, which I may or may not switch to 7 miles at MGP instead to continue to lock in my pace. Should come out to about 10 miles with warmup/down.

That's all I got for you, as its time to eat a quick (but giant) sammie and get back to work.

Sunday Trail Run

Once again, the trail didn't disappoint.
Jo Dee, David and I met up at first light (7am) for a 90 minute easy recovery run this morning. We got in about 7 miles of great trail running. I ran in my new trail shoes and they were great.

The highlight for me is when we got to the waterfall, I opted to get in and go for a swim. It was fantastic. Swam in under the waterfall and had the water massage my shoulders for a while.

Ahhh, the magical greenbelt, how I love you.

17 miles at Marathon Goal Pace : B - 17

Today I learned some valuable things. People often say: "90% [of a race/run] is mental." Well, today I learned that the statement is 100% true.

On the menu for today was four 5 mile loops at Marathon Goal Pace 6:50/mile.
3 weeks ago we did three loops and Jason and I nailed our times.

All this week, I had put it in my head that success was the only option. Simply put, there was no other option than to hit my times for 20 miles. Mentally I was ready, and once I got out there, I really had no doubts I wouldn't succeed. It might get real tough, but it's all temporary, good and bad feelings throughout the run come in waves, and you just keep running. There is no other option than success.
After the third I was mentally strong and ready to go crank out one more 5 mile loop. My legs were certainly not as fresh as after loop 1 or 2, but I knew i had it in the bag for 5 more miles, even though the last 2 miles would be tough and suck.
That's when coach pulled the plug: "You're done. All three of you." "What? No, I can do this." "I know you can, but you're done. Your race is in Boston, not today in Austin." Jason, Damon and I managed to talk him into 2 more miles at MGP, then a 2 mile cool down, so off we went, AND THIS IS WHERE THE LESSON WAS LEARNED.
You can knock out 5 more miles at pace, if you're determined to hit those miles. But once you know you only have 2 more, immediately your mind tells you "only two more mike" and you tire and the last two mile become painful.
We nailed our splits, but boy were those two miles (miles 16 and 17) the most painful two miles of the day. Had we had 5 more miles, those two miles would have been a piece of cake, and 19 and 20 would have been hell.

So that's the lesson I learned today. Your mind will automatically turn your body into feeling like crap as soon as it knows it's almost over. It's time to learn to control that mindset on top of the great mental gains I've made over the last year.

Here are the splits. Our #1 goal was to hit the 5 miles splits, #2 goal obviously to try and hit mile splits too, but the markers on the road aren't exact, and the road isn't flat...
(Since I missed the second mile marker on the first loop, I decided to skip the marker on every loop to be able to compare the loops. Miles 2 and 3 are slight descents)

GOAL MILE TIME
6:50 1 6.46
13:40 2-3 13.25 - downhills caught us off guard
6:50 4 6.58
6:50 5 7.01
34:10 5miles 34.11 PERFECT!!

6.50 6 6.47
13:40 7-8 13.07 - downhills and passing many runnners = adrenaline
6.50 9 6.54
7.50 10 7.09
1.08.20 10miles 1.08.10 1 second fast per mile PERFECT!

6.50 11 6.49
13.40 12-13 13.16 - split the difference between prior 2. I'll take it.
6.50 14 6.53
6.50 15 7.05
1.42.15 15miles 1.42.30 1 min fast per mile PERFECT!

6.50 16 6.43
6.50 17 6.52
1.56.10 17miles 1.55.51 19 seconds fast for 17 miles means about 1 second faster per mile. I'll take that any day.

+ 2 mile warmup and 1.5 mile warmdown = 20.5miles


By the way, I ran a fun little 3 mile speed workout on the trails with Karma on Friday to tire him out, and loosen up my legs. What a great sunrise!


Personal Markers: post 2:10 turn 4:40 park and in: 1min10

Boston Homework

 Chuck posted a video on Kara Goucher running part of the Boston Course, which reminded me I haven't been doing my homework lately.  Hopefully she does well. 

So I need to get back to it, and watch this 8 min course review every day again, or at the VERY least, start it at 4:30 in, and watch as we drive into Newton and face the hills in Newton and Brookline. 

I just wish I could change the music, because it gets old pretty darn fast. 

16 miles closer - B-20 days

Yesterday I ran 4 miles in the greenbelt with my dog.  It was fun, but a little too fast at the start because some idiot decided to start running the GB at the same time as me with her 2 dogs.  Why is she an idiot.  Its 7:10am. First light.  There are 4, actually 5 ways you can go right off the start, and she chose to run right friggin behind me.  What the hell?   I want solitude?  Don't you?  Anyway, I looked at Karma, he looked at me and said: "Dad, lets drops those fools." So we did.  We took a couple of turns and within 8 minutes we were up at the big empty and then off towards cedar chop and lost them in time to see the sunrise at the lookout.  I then soaked my legs up, waist deep just standing in the water while Karma swam around until I found him a rock he could stand on semi-underwater.  He looked at me and kept smilin'.

   The highlight was this giant grey Egret flew RIGHT OVER my head, about 12 feet over me.  I don't think he realized the grey statue in the water was a human.  It was great! I can't find a good photo of a grey one that shows how big these things are... so you get a white one. 

Today I ran with the Team, and 16 miles was on the menu.  South Austin Ramble route.  Ran part of it on my own, part of it with someone who never speaks (i've nicknamed him silent bob), and them most of it with Damon.  He said the pace was mostly around 7:30-7:42 are he looked at his watch.  good stuff. 

Whew! What a running weekend! B-22

What a fantastic 3 days of running!

FRIDAY - 5 miles

Friday was supposed to be a rest day for me, but, as I spent so many days at the SXSW music festival, and then knee issues and workouts that didn't include Karma....  Karma didn't get much love from me.  So instead, Bruce and Meredith met me for an easy 5 miles in the greenbelt for Karma to get some fun of his choice.  Meredith brought Flyer, which gave Karma even more fun!  We had a blast, and both Bruce and I commented during our Saturday run HOW INCREDIBLY FRESH our legs felt from an easy 5 mile greenbelt run after some hard running during the week on Friday afternoon.  Knee: 8/10  (10 being perfect)

SATURDAY - 24.5 miles

The doctor has ordered me to run a mile then stretch my knee (IT Band) for a full 5 minutes before running.  That's impossible to do on a trail, but yesterday Nedra who's been having possibly similar issues met me at 5:10 and we ran 1.2 miles then stretched before our group set off for 24 miles.  The route ended up being 23.3, but with my 1.2, it got 24.5 in.   My knee wasn't very happy with me on Saturday, with shooting pains every so often.  Plus, the 24 miles felt like they took for EVER.  Probably because we purposely ran it at a calm pace of just under 8 min/miles.   Knee: 5/10

Saturday afternoon I spent eating eating eating and trying to rehydrate.  I felt hungry and thirsty when i went to bed but knew I couldn't eat anymore.  

SUNDAY - 6.2 (10km) race + 3.8 warmup/down ( i mapped it!) = 10.0 miles.

I sent this email to my boss (coach) yesterday with my plan of attack.  

Looking at the race course...

I think I'll go for
Mile1- 6:45 slow due to traffic?
Mile2- 7:00 two hills... Rt on congress and up 15th. (Don't blow up)
Mile3- 7 to 7:15 big ass hill over lamar
Mile4- 6:20
Mile5- 6:20
Mile6.2-  whatever I got left

33:40 + 1.2miles of ?? to the finish= 39:59-40:59

Looks good enough to me...  Respectable after todays run, and a knee that doesn't like cold and I don't want to aggravate it so close to Boston.

I heard no response, but this morning I reiterated it, and he felt it was fine.   

The first mile was funny.  I was running and actually laughed outloud.  Why?  Well, watch this video...

My legs felt like wobbly spaghetti strands, and pictured the scene in Bambi where she's slipping on the ice as a fawn. I thought: Oh my, this is going to be interesting! and just chuckled. Not sure if anyone heard but I thought it was hysterical as I had no pressure on myself today.

I missed the 1 mile marker, but Keith who was behind me told me it was a 6:25. Uh oh. Waaaaaay too fast. I slowed up and settled into a slightly slower pace to conserve energy with the hills yet to come. I chatted with a couple of running acquaintances, and kept things loose. Overtime, it was apparent that Chad, Keith and I had a goal of sub 40 as our 'A' goal and we ran together.

I missed the 2nd mile marker too, then finally spotted the 3rd one. 19.49 for 3 miles = 6:36 per mile.

We then turned the corner onto the faster half of the course, and trucked along. Eventually Chad made his move, silently and I knew there was no way in the world i'd be able to hang on to his pace for 2 miles, but figured I'd maybe catch him in the last 1/2 mile to 3/4 mile. (that wouldn't happen). Keith and I ran on, keeping each other loose and I tried to keep things jovial as much for him, but really for myself as well to just think about something other than the tired legs. 

Mile 4- 6:24, and Mile 5- 6:17, exactly where I had planned to be, so I'm happy with that.  Last 1 mile clocks in at 6:21, then the last 0.2 clocked in at 1:07 which apparently is a 5:04 pace. Ha!

I'm happy with my final time. I knew I had taken me 7 or 8 seconds to cross the start line so i sprinted to the finishline and snuck in at 40:06. Clicked my watch, and it rad 39:59. Official time was posted as 39:58. Too cool, beat my desired fast time by a second!

Overall I ran 6:25, which means I ran the last 3.2 miles at 6:16pace, so a 20 second per mile negative split.

Not too shabby with 24.5 somewhat hilly miles on my legs the day before!

Stats:

Time 39:58

Pace: 6:26/mile

35-39 Age Group: 24th out of 565 (timed runners) = 4.2%

Overall 150th out of 18,000+ (including everyone who crossed the start line) = 0.008 percentile ha!

Total miles this weekend = 34.5miles.

Total miles this week = 80.8 miles

22 more days to go

2 more very HARD workouts (saturday long run, and one hard weekday workout)... and it's a date with sub <2:59:59>

13.3 miles of Rollers - B-25

My knee didn't feel as good as it did yesterday, but it felt better than when it hurt a lot. 

I took it a bit easier today than three weeks ago, when we did the same workout, and it's was quite surprising how much fresher you feel on the 2nd half when you do that. 

the 13.3 miles had 2 min on 2 min off intervals, 3.2 miles of warmup/down, and 3.6 miles of tempo running.  All the workout stuff on rolling roads.  I REALLY thought I was going much faster than I was on the last 3.6 miles of tempo pace, but after some math and mapping, looks like I was no faster than 6:58.   My MGP for Boston is 6:50.  Bleh.

Oh well... we move on to harder things for the weekend.

My legs still feel really heavy from standing, poor nutrition, and lack of sleep/rest for 4 long days of SXSW music festival. 

Hopefully they'll be nice and recovered over then next 20 days so I can mentally prepare for the last 5 days with a fresh body. 

Correction

I ran 11.4 miles, not 10. 

10.2 loop, with a 1.2 prior with Karma to warmup before my Doctor ordered stretching.

10 decent miles B-26

I got lucky and was able to get in to see my Sports Doctor yesterday afternoon due to a same day cancellation (which turned out to be a friend of mine's cancellation).   

Doctor C. is great, and has the experience necessary for a sports doctor.  The dude was one of a few doctors the US Olympic team took with them to Beijing, he is the head Doctor for most UT athletes etc.  

After some diagnosing, questioning, and feeling around my knee, he quickly determined there was no structural, or bone related injury, and the probably cause was the hard track workouts we've been doing lately.   As you may recall, last fall, the track flared up my Plantar's somewhat fierce, so I think i've come to the conclusion that my body simply doesn't like the track as much as it likes looooong distanced, on mostly straight roads or ondulating greenbelt trails.   In other words, repetitive circles.... not so much.

He gave me some homework to do, prolonged stretches to do before and after my run, etc.  and I'm happy to report that this morning's 10 mile easy run with Bruce, Damon and Ken, went fairly well.  Not nearly the pains I've had in the past few days, and even know, after a soak in the springs, and a warm shower, I feel nothing remotely as bad as before.   Real test will be my drive I have in a little while, since the angle my legs is in, and the braking and accelerating was really causing some soreness in the past. 

As far as running is concerned, I didn't feel out of shape, but taking 6 days off definitely made my legs feel sluggish, instead of the strong legs I usually have.

Thursday we have 13 miles of rolling hills, Friday rest or easy on the greenbelt, Saturday 24 miles, then Sunday we're racing the gigantic 16,000+ person Capitol 10Km.   It'll be interesting to see how strong we are with a 24 mile warmup run the day before!  hahaha

Off to Round Rock I go. hi ho hi ho hi ho.

Happy Running!

The weakhurts at the Warhurst: B-27

I did the weak man's version of the Warhurst today, because my knee continues to bug me.  It's not entirely debilitating, but I also know the knee is not an area to mess with.  What's wrong with it?  Oh, I don't know.  It feels inflamed, it feels tender, it feels sore, it has pain at times, but it doesn't feel broken.  That's the best i can tell you.

Ended up running a total of 8.6 miles, instead of the 13-15 mile workout others did.  Didn't run the 10K track fast paced stuff, but did run 4 miles at 6:26, 28, 27 and 25.

Going to call and set an appointment with my sports doctor.  Usually, I'd probably just let it play out over time, but Boston is in 27 days (4 weeks), so there's no time to mess around with homemade voodoo magic. 

I'm pretty sure I can run a marathon on it, I'm just not sure I can run the fast one I want to run, and even more unsure of the damage that speed could create.

Many unknowns, but we'll get it figured out.  

knee getting worse?? : (

Erin called me the other day upon reading that I had openly stated that my knee hurt.  She knows me too well...  i don't like to openly write about small nagging pains, so she knew if I was writing about a knee pain for the world to see, that it was probably much more serious than I was making it out to be. 

Sure, I didn't sleep much last night, my head hurt a little, and my stomach had plenty of beer in it, but the biggest reason why I only made it 1 mile on the run, then walked back to my car, was the pain in my knee has moved from the knee cap over the outer side.  

It's not the IT band area, it's on that little "hole" right next to the knee cap.  It hurts, and my knee feels wobbly (not strong) due to the pain. 

Good thing it's a recovery week, because it'll get some rest. 

Not too sure if biking around SXSW will aggravate it, but then again, isn't biking and swimming where they send injured runners?

Still have 4.5 weeks before Boston, so plenty of time to get better, but we're also in the critical stages with 2, maybe 3 more defining workouts left, and I'd much rather have the confidence boost from them.  

Officially listing myself as: "Day to day", but still on the active roster.  

I may skip Saturday's short 14 miler though.  We'll see.

5 x 1Miles at CV - Knee cap hurting.

ran 3.2 miles of warm up and warmdown...

and in the middle we did 5 sets of 1 mile at CV (cristical velocity) pace, which for the 2:59 train was 6:21'ish.   With a 90 seconds rest in between. 

My 5 miles clocked in at: 

6:17

6:17

6:17

6:23

6:21

We were 3 to 4 seconds fast on the 1st lap for the 1st three sets.  Just couldn't find the pace.  We paid a little bit more attention on the last two and did better.   All in all, a good day on the track. 

My right knee cap is mysteriously really sore.  Not sure why since i haven't banged it on anything.  You know when you slam your knee cap into a table, or corner, or a chair or desk, and it just stings for a good 5 minutes... that's the pain I'm feeling.  Knee cap and under it. 

It started yesterday afternoon, and just got worse throughout the day.  This morning I woke up and it was feeling better, but as I walked around it felt sore again.  The warmup 1.6 miles, and then the 1st track mile were pretty painful, but then the pain was numbed from running, and I just kept going with it.   As coach said... It's all just bone and ligaments in there, so not much we can do.  Icing it down won't do anything...  Will just have to keep an eye on it.

27mile Soul buster: 0 Mike: 1

Today was the last Soulbuster before Boston. ( we still have 2 or 3 HARD workouts left, but this was aruguably the hardest long run workout of the whole Boston training season. 

Turned out to be 27 miles long.

19.6 miles of road running of which last 6 included some nice sized hills to tired us out (Red bud, Stratford, Robert E Lee, Ridgeview etc.).  Then hopped on the track for the real workout.  Here's how that went!

2m @ MGP Goal 6:50 / 1:42 laps

1:45**took a while to get the legs turning over**

1:43**took a while to get the legs turning over**

1:40

1:40 (6:49 mile) got it back on track!

-6:49-

1:40

1:40

1:42

1:41(6:45 mile) Oops! A little fast... this could come back to haunt.

-13:34- 

2mile avg: 6:47 - Goal 6:50   (Banked 6 seconds.)

2M @ HMGP Goal 6:30 / 1:37 laps

1:39 *** This was my worst lap mentally ***

1:39

1:37

1:39(6:35 mile)  yuck.  was a little tough kicking up the pace. (GEL ON THIS LAP)

-20:09- 

1:38

1:37

1:36

1:37(6:30 mile)

-26:39- 

2mile avg: 6:32.5 - Goal 6:30 Back to only 1 second fast overall.

2M @ 10km Goal 6:10 / 1:32 laps

1:33

1:35 (I bitched at my coach about his comments about "not looking down")

1:34  after this lap, I decided to stop farting around, and go hit my times the rest of the way and make up all the lost seconds. 

1:32 (6:16 mile)  (6 seconds slow but this particular lap was perfect.)

-32:55-

1:33

1:32 No doubt now.  I'm feeling REALLY GOOD.

1:33  

1:27 (6:07 mile) (BAM! made up some good time and felt strong to the finish)

-39:02- 

2mile avg 6:11.5 - Goal 6:10

2.5 seconds slow for the whole enchilada...   

I consider that an A+. 

 I'm certainly not going to freak out over 2.5 seconds over 6 miles.   

2:59 definitely feels attainable with a smart plan, assuming I stay healthy.