9 miles -- 6 at MP HR

3 nbhrd loops, 8.79, 1:18:05/156, 8:53 pace

I was shooting for 6 miles at marathon effort. I did 3 nbhrd loops (2.93 miles each). 16 minute warm-up on the first loop and hit the watch at the fire hydrant in front of the school. Did two loops getting up to around 170 bpm (where I expect to run the marathon) on the second loop and then hit cooled down to complete the 3 loops.

• 16:33/131 (warmup)
• 24:21/161 (8:19 min/mi)
• 24:09/168 (8:15 min/mi)
• 13:01/152 ( cooldown)

Seems a little worse than last Saturday's run where I wasn't trying to run that fast. I had a strange sensation on the first loop. I concentrated on running lightly and driving my arms back (to keep my legs from going forward and heel striking). I felt like I couldn't run fast enough to get my heart rate up where I wanted although it seemed like I was going at a good clip. Anyway, it caught up with me and felt more like work after a few miles.

The weather today was 50 degrees/90% humidty. I was out of long sleeve tech shirts and wore a rather thick Nike mock turtleneck thing which was rather hot. Should have gone with short sleeves.

weight
I weighed 163 this evening and 162 the morning of my aborted run on monday, so somehow my 5 or so pounds gained post-marathon mysteriously disappeared. Odd.

taper
I haven't quite figured my schedule for the next week and a half. I'll probably run 8 or 9 thursday and friday. 18 (or 14?) on Saturday. Off sunday or maybe 6 or less? 6 monday, 7 with 2 @race pace on tues, 6 wed, 5 w/strides on th, 4 (or zero) on friday. Race Saturday.

wr9-1