I ran 10 miles easy this morning in 1:13:27. I ran a 200m pickup in 33s during the second half of the run to simulate goal pace for the 1600m race that I am running tonight. PM: I ran a free 1600m race put on by the Las Vegas Track Club. I was hoping that Andrew (the guy who beat me at the last free race I came to) would show up so that I would have someone to drag me to a 1600m pr. This is the first 1600m race that I have run since high school (over 9 years ago). Luck was not on my side, and Andrew did not come to the race. There was also a fair amount of wind on the backstretch (not horrible, but enough to slow your overall time down). I decided that I would just start the race at a hard pace and then see how things went from there. The gun went off, and I started off at a solid pace. I was surprised to make it to 200m in 33 seconds, and even more surprised that another runner was right on my shoulder. I felt good, so I was hoping this translated into a solid time for me. I backed off a little at 200 because I did not trust in my ability to run 4:24 pace for the entire race. Just before the 400m mark the kid went past me. I hit 400m in 1:07 (34 sec. for the second 200m) with the kid one second ahead in 1:06. However, as soon as we crossed the 400m mark the kid slowed down just a little, and I started to run up on him. This really messed up the rhythm I was in as I couldn't really pass him without a major surge, due to the turn, and he was running just fast enough that I hoped I could stay behind him until we got through the backstretch where the wind was the worst. This ended up being a bad decision for me, as we slowed down to 35 sec for the 200m from 400-600m, and I had trouble getting back in a faster rhythm for the remainder of the race. It was like my body just locked into that pace, and it didn't feel incredibly hard, but I couldn't speed up either. I did end up surging to pass the kid at the beginning of the next turn, so the next 200m was run in 34 sec (2:16 for 800m). By the time I hit 800m I had a 20-30m lead on the kid, and the lead just got bigger from there to the finish. I ran the next three 200m sections in 35 seconds each (3:26 at 1200m, and 4:01 at 1400m), and then closed in 33 seconds over the final 200m to finish in 4:34 (1:08 for the final 400m). Overall, I was not displeased with how things turned out. I have not really done any 1600m specific workouts, and I ran 10 miles this morning in addition to the 17.4 miles I ran Monday, and the hard tempo run last Saturday. The time equaled my 1600m pr that I set in practice when I was running for BYU, and beat my high school pr by 4 seconds. On top of everything it was a little windy, and while the sun was not bad the temperature was still around 100 degrees. If you throw out the rhythm killer after the first lap I think I would have run about 2 seconds faster as well. Considering everything I'll take the time I got, however I still do feel like there is some sort of inhibitor that is preventing me from going faster, and it is not physical. Hopefully I can work that issue out soon, whatever the issue may be.
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