A.M. Eventful morning. Started with a tempo run with Jeff. We warmed up 3.62, then started our 10 mile tempo. Fast Running Blog 5 Miler course twice. While I am at it, I'll put a plug for the race on July 11th. This is a great opportunity to accurately test your fitness. I know that course very very well. With the race still small I can afford to offer every blogger that comes to run it an analysis of his performance. I hope this means more to you than purchasing a shirt, some food and a chance to win an age division award, which we unlike other races do not offer. Take that back, we actually do offer the option of purchasing a shirt for $8, but it is still an option, shirt purchase is not required to enter the race. And in case somebody still does not know, there is no charge to enter the race.
The plan was to go out at around 5:50 pace, and then speed up by feel. My splits: 5:49 - 5:48 - 5:46 - 5:43 - 5:43 - 5:40 - 5:35 - 5:32 - 5:32 - 5:38. We tried to do quarters, but eventually the pace got fast enough to where I was not very helpful at the front. With 1.5 to go Jeff sped up to an 81 quarter, I survived it, but was done for the rest of the run and lost contact. My quarters after that were 83, 85, 85, 84, 84. The last mile is a slight uphill, so the effort was worth a flat 5:32-5:34. Total time was 56:46. Jeff finished with 56:34. Splits by 2.5: 14:33 - 14:16 - 14:03 - 13:54. By 5: 28:49 - 27:57. I was happy to break 28:00 in the second half. First 5 miles felt sluggish, I was even wondering if I could hold that pace at all, much less speed up. Then we sped up to 5:40 and I found a good rhythm.
I felt very good during mile 7. HR was 154. I do not think I ever had it that low going 5:35 that late in a tempo or a race. I found a good rhythm during that mile. Then I lost it during a 180 and the pace felt painful, but then I found the rhythm again. However, 81 was too much for my nervous system. I still had good rhythm in the last mile, but Jeff was gone, and my neural drive was in overload. So 5:38 was all I could do. Cooled down to make the total of 15. The took Benjamin and Jenny to the Utah Track State Championship. They both ran 1500 meters in the Bantam division. This was Jenny's first track race, so naturally she made some mistakes. She spent a good portion of the race in the second or third lanes while there was no competitor around her. This ended up costing her the win. Her time was 6:40.00, while the Olivia Tait ran 6:39.64. Olivia was on pace for about 6:20, but then with about 170 meters to go she started throwing up. So she stopped, then started running, stopped again, pushed as hard as she could, and ended up holding off Jenny at the end. Jenny's splits were 1:41, 1:52, 1:50, and 1:17 for the last 300. She advanced to the regionals, an since they are going to be held here at BYU she is going to run in them. Not a bad showing, though, given that she is 8 and she was racing girls 10 and under. But we need to work on holding a steady pace all the way through, and on staying in the first lane. If somebody had told me that Benjamin would not advance to the regionals with a 5:43 I would have said impossible. Last year he won with 6:06. But it did happen. Bantum Boys ended up being the deepest race in all age categories. Benjamin ran a 22 second PR, and still missed top 3 getting outkicked by Jakob Bates in the last 200. He would have advanced with his time in every other age division. Sometimes life pretends to be not fair. But it always is. There is no such thing as unfair. Luck is random, preparation is not. Amadeus Peterson won with 5:21.91, then Aiden Troutner 5:25.80, Jakob 5:41.44, and Benjamin 5;43.77. Benjamin's splits were 1:26 (quarter PR), 1:34, 1:36, and 1:07 for the last 300. I was happy with how he ran the race. He did slow down after the first lap, but he was able to maintain a respectable pace in spite of running a very aggressive first quarter. Our 6:00 pace to failure training did have some positive results. 5:46 pace in the first lap did not completely kill him, his kick was respectable, and his average pace for the whole run was 6:08.8. We will continue to work on making 6:00 pace comfortable enough to make it to the mile. P.M. Ran barefoot. 1.5 with Julia in 14:38, 0.5 with Joseph in 5:55.
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