A.M. 20 miles with Jeff. The original plan was 10 easy out to Bridal Veil Falls, then hard back. However, when I saw and felt all the rocks on the University Avenue stretch from Wyview to Wills, I suggested a change of plans. Start at the Will's and run hard for 10 miles, then jog, then maybe run hard at the end if feeling good. That would give us about 5.8 uphill and into a headwind out, and 4.2 downhill with a tailwind back. So we started out sluggish. The uphill was not too bad, and there was no headwind yet, but we slugged along through the first mile in 6:05, and it did not feel like a jog, not a good sign. The next mile we picked up the effort, but we ran into some obstactles. First, the trail was dug up at the intercection with the Orem Center street, so we had to take a detour that probably cost us 4 seconds, and then the head wind picked up. So that mile was 6:05 as well. Jeff stepped on the gas and I tucked behind as we battled more headwind. With the increased effort the pace became a little under 6:00. Then as we entered the Provo Canyon the head wind eased off for just a quarter and we were able to see what our effort was worth. We did a quarter in 85, 5:40 pace. Jeff was surprised, I was not. Then we had a mile at around 6:00 average, and then the headwind picked up and the uphill got steeper and we started to see 1:32 quarters. HR was 154. 30:13 at 5 miles. Right after that the headwind increased more. We ran a 1:39 quarter and passed a couple of nicely equipped bikers as if they were standing still. Finally we reached the turnaround. On the way back we were going first 5:50, then 5:45, then 5:40, and my HR was not breaking 145. We were gradually closing on the 6:00 guy. At 7.5 we were 2 seconds behind (45:02). Then I told Jeff the pace was easy enough for me that he could pick it up. Earlier on the uphill I had to tell him to ease off. So we did the next 0.5 in 2:53, not a whole lot of pick up. Then I said I wanted to break 59:00, so we would have to hit 84 quarters, and then kick. Our next mile was 5:28, followed by the closing mile in 5:14. Those were down 1% grade with tailwind. Total time for 10 was 58:37. HR maxed out at 159. It was an interesting experience to hit the gas pedal hard when you still have 6 miles to go. Very good for mental conditioning.
When we started jogging I thought I was done with fast running for the day. Then 2 miles later I asked Jeff if he wanted to run the last 2.5 at 6:00 pace. He said just the last mile. So we jogged eventually speeding up to sub-7:00 pace, and then ran the last mile in 5:54. HR got up to only 152 even thought it started to get warm and I had no water or anything for that matter during the whole run. Total time for 20 was 2:14:39. Even thought I felt decent in the last mile and could have gone longer, when I got into the house I was mentally done. I asked Sarah for some cherries in Russian using diminitive words. Then I remembered that Russians start using diminitives when they are very tired. Diminitives do not exist in English, but for a rough idea, instead of say "cherry" you'd say "cute little cherry". One time I took my friend who was out of shape for a 12.5 mile run. He was a tough guy. When in half decent shape he could take me out for a tempo and make me speak in diminitives afterwards. 11.3 100, 1:57 800, 4:10 1500, and 16:08 5000. He did not train very consistently, thus much faster in shorter distances. His father was from Ghana, but his mother was Russian. Being the only black kid among the Russians he dealt with the challenge by never showing any signs of weakness. His fists were connected to very well coordinated explosive muscle fibers, so nobody dared insult him to his face. Needless to say, he did not use a whole lot of diminitives in his speech. However, after that run he was literally a different person. He was not talking like himself. I had never heard that many diminitives come out of his mouth. P.M. 2 with Benjamin and Jenny in 17:53. Julia ran the first 0.5 with us in 4:46. She ran a mile in the morning with Sarah.
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