Friday, March 23, 2012

First Towers of Spring

Tonight was the first warm weather, clear trails, daylight Towers Time Trial of the year.  There was a lot of buzz on the FCTR list with talk of PRs and feet of vertical.  I was excited for the run, but sad to not be in PR shape.  I ran my PR on Towers on this same night one year ago when I ran 36:57.  The Soderberg lot was nearly full when Mike and I pulled in at 5:45.  There were probably more people at the run tonight than the last 3 Towers runs combined.  A lot of fair weather Towers climbers out there I guess.  I started with the 40 minute group, feeling like a sub 40 was possible with the god trail conditions considering I ran 42:49 two weeks ago when there was still a fair amount of snow and ice on the trail.  I secretely hoped I might be bale to run 38 minutes.  The run started off well and I felt surprisingly good.  I pushed where I could and held on as steady as possible.  The mile splits went off at 9:08, 12:08, and 10:58.  When I hit 3 miles at just over 32 minutes, I knew I could hit 38 with a good final push to the top.  I ran hard up the next hill and tried to keep it smooth through the short sections of mud, ice and snow in the last quarter mile.  I hit the building and stopped my watch at 37:09-- only 12 seconds off my PR.  This was a great surprise, because I really didn't think I was capable of that tonight.  Two weeks from now, I'm going to break 37 and set a new PR.

Off to Moab with Maddie tomorrow for a the 24 Hour race with Kyle, Scott, Celeste, Sam and others.  Weather looks good.  Should be another fun weekend.

3 comments:

  1. Great run, great chatting with you as always!
    PR Fest in 2 weeks -- Assuming *fair weather*, of course!

    Good luck and have fun in Moab!

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  2. It was definitely a good night on the hill, I also ran about 3 minutes faster than I hoped and about 6.5 minutes faster than 2 weeks ago. I'm in for the PR Fest next time up. Good job.

    Have a blast in Moab, I'm jealous.

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  3. Have you tried going out a bit slower the first mile? That approach has definitely worked for me (and Mr. October, but I think I'm more impressive). On my PR, the difference between my first and second miles was around 2 minutes compared to your 3 (and my first mile was only 15 secs faster than yours).

    But I digress...let's get back to working on your ability to motivate me as a pacer...you couldn't get me out of the sleeping bag in Moab, so I'm getting worried about Big Horn.

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