A.M. Usual 20 miler to Bridal Veil Falls and back. Was a bit faster in the "warmup". Noticed that I was hitting 7:00 pace uphill into a headwind without trying too hard. Of course, I can trick myself easily in that speed range, but I was hoping that there was more to it that me merely wanting to believe that I was feeling good. The first half was 1:10:15. A couple of weeks ago I decided to set a goal of breaking 2:30 in the Top of Utah. This is not a super-goal. I've done it before twice. But I have not done it since 2007. So I figured I needed a humble but challenging goal, and this is a nice round number. So this morning I prayed to have some form of evidence that this goal is in my shooting range. After the prayer, I thought - well, I need to set some kind of a metric to judge my fitness from this workout. Looking back at my past workouts, I said if I run a low 57:00 for the last 10 miles of this 20 miler or faster, sub-2:30 is in the cards. So I ran with the idea of running 57:00 or at least close. Coming down the Provo Canyon I hit my 3 mile tempo stretch in 16:42 (5:30,5:33,5:39). It felt slightly aggressive, but something that I could survive. Cooler temperatures did help, it was not as bad as two weeks ago, but it started to get warmer somewhat. 5 miles was not clearly marked, but I am estimating it was around 28:04. I was happy to hit 5:49 for mile 7 which has uphill, and roughly corresponds to the slowest mile of the last 6 on the UVM course. Afterwards it got warmer (67F), and the course started to go through turns, tunnels, and bridges. I did the next mile in 5:44, then 5:54. I was in a state where if you had me run straight on an even terrain I was OK, but I was really getting bothered by turns, little ups and downs, and a bumpy road. In the last mile I decided to give it a push, but the first quarter was a bummer. The tunnel was flooded, so I had to go around through the gate and across 820 N watching out for cars, and this was bad enough of a momentum killer than I ended up with a 92 quarter. After that with 19.25 miles for the run, 9.25 of it at almost 5:40 average I was tired, but found the energy to get angry and say: "I am going to crack 57:00. I do not care if 57:05 is still good enough. I am cracking 57:00!". So I did the next two quarters in 85, and the last one in 83. This gave me 56:58.9 for the last 10 miles, and 2:07:14 for the whole 20. So I reached my goal, and if my estimates are correct, this predicts being able to dip under 2:30 a bit in the Top of Utah if the weather is as good as it was in 2007. Benjamin did 5, Joseph 1.5, Julia and Jenny 1.5 as well. P.M. 0.5 with Jacob.
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