High Speeds

Did 8 miles down the canyon in 44:37. I intended to do a progressive workout. After four miles, I was out of breath, had a sideache, and had to slow down to 5:40 pace. Will need to do more longer workouts to overcome this issue before the Top of Utah half.

Today did an 8-mile tempo run down the canyon. The result was the best so far. Started out in 5:30, then did the next five miles in 26:10 (a 5:14 average). Finished off in 10:40 (5:17, 5:23) for a total time of 42:20. This is my best performance on this course this year.

Nine in the morning in 1:08:54, 4 in the evening with Jenny in 30:02.

  It happened! I went under 1:09! Also, by Ukranian standards I am now a КМС (Candidate Master of Sports) in the half marathon, which is a big deal. The standard was 1:08:30. The breakthrough seems to be a combination of getting 2 years older, and upping the daily mileage to 12.

  Like usual for this course, the first 4 miles were a little slow. My splits were (roughly) 5:15, 5:20, 5:15 and 5:10 to make 21:00 at four miles. Then I picked it up, and ran 5:01, 5:02 and 5:04 to reach 7 miles with 36:07. Teren was with me for the first 4, then fell back, but caught up to me around 7. Something about the transition from the canyon to flat made me develop a sideache. I was pretty worried about that, and said a prayer. It went away after a mile or so, and I was able to catch Teren around 9 miles. My split at 9 was something like 46:35, so 10:28 for those two miles (mile 8 was off).

 After catching Teren, I was still feeling good. I could see 5th place ahead of me. Money on the road. The next mile was in 5:11. making 52:46 for 10 miles. This was by far the strongest I have felt this far into a half marathon. I guess the evening runs have been making a big difference. Around 10.5 I caught 5th place, then set my sights on 4th.

  The hills in the Top of Utah Half are cruelly positioned - right at the end when it hurts the most. Yet I was able to do 5:23. 5:40 on the hills. Ben Van Beekum was a good sport and acutally helped to pull me when I caught up to him around mile 11 - thanks Ben! Then on the last 1.1 stretch, I did a little over 5:30, which ends up being 5:00 pace. Definitely a miracle for me at the end of a half!

   I'm very happy with this race, and am grateful there are so many good races in Utah and such strong competition. Definitely would not have run that time on my own! Most of all thanks to my Dad for his dilligent coaching and putting up with all of my whining about workouts and such.

This was perhaps the only half marathon I have raced where I didn't experience some sort of blowup in the last 3 to 6 miles. It was a new experience.

Today wasn't as glorious as last Saturday. To make a long story short. Hills & Fatigue. This week I didn't get in as much recovery as I needed to, and paid for it today. The first mile was 5:15, flat, but I was already not feeling it. Teren and Jason Lynch disappeared into the sunset while I slogged through the first three miles in 17:00 (yes, 5:40 and then 6:07). I was able to speed up on the downhill, but it was too little, too late. The saddest part was that my downhill miles (5:20, 5:14, 5:10) were slower than my average pace in the TOU half last week. Ouch!

  Mercy smiled upon me, and I still took third. Still in the money. This course is slow, but I cracked 33:30 as a 17-year old. So something else was afoot. I guess не все коту маслиница (literally, 'Not everything is cream to the cat"). Meow. A Russian proverb that says you don't always get what you want.

  Cooled down by running the 5K course with Teren, my Dad, Matt, and some others. An age-graded scoring mechanism was proposed for the curcuit next year. Not sure how I feel about that, given certain old guys can beat me without any help from age grading :-).