A.M. Total of 13. 3 mile tempo after a 2 mile warmup. Got 16:57.9 with the splits of 5:36 - 5:42 - 5:39. This marks poking my head out of the zone of desperation - not being able to crack 17:00 in a 3 mile tempo. Granted, the course is not the fastest, it is on the Provo River Trail which tends to be slower than most race courses, and it has a 180 turn, and I am doing it alone, but still struggling to break 5:40 average over 3 miles and failing does not feel good. I am finally past that, I still struggled, but at least it was 5:39 average, not 5:4x. Some positives: I was only 3 seconds slower in the last mile than in the first, and only 6 seconds slower in the second in spite of a 180 turn. There was an odd quarter at the start of the second mile that somehow ended up being 82, and there was a slight uphill quarter at the start of the third mile that ended up being 84. Those surges did not last, and did have a negative effect of slowing me down later, but at the same time I did not realize I was surging, I just put in a little bit of effort to prevent a slowdown. The last quarter was 83, not very good, but what I liked about it is that I smelled the barn with about 100 meters to go and started moving my legs. I was not able to do that in the previous runs. Then I ran home and ran with the kids. Benjamin did 3, Jenny and Julia 2, Joseph 1, and Jacob 0.5. I did 2x400 in the last 1.5 miles - 72.2 rolling and 70.3 down. Benjamin did the last one and ended up with around 70.5 which is his PR. He now boasts being able to run for a quarter at a pace that is a little bit faster than the world record marathon pace. He said to me - "And some people run full marathon like this?" I think it is a good idea for every runner to practice running world record marathon pace for as long as he can, even if it is only 100 meters, so that 4:44 per mile marathon will mean to him more than just words and a superficial wow.
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