Fartlek Tuneup Run

I met the 9:00 Gazelles so that I could do my fartlek run at Town Lake today. Before the run, I talked with Gilbert for a while about race strategy and my specific goals, and I left that conversation feeling more positive about my chances on Saturday. Gilbert told me to just run as I feel on Saturday, without being a slave to the watch, and to check out my progress every 5k (or 3 miles) instead of obsessing over every single mile split. I'll still take the mile splits, but I'll try to take a longer view of things on race day. He told me not to panic if I see that I ran a sub 8:00 mile during the race, as long as I am running smoothly. So, the question for Indy is how much I'll break my existing half marathon PR, not IF I'll break it. I'm glad we talked. With my fitness apparently coming to a peak right now, I really will be running blind a little bit at Indy, into the unknown, so I'll have to have my mental game ready more than anything else, I think.

Anyway, the fartleks went great. It was strange running without my usual posse, and stranger still to do them alone, but it went well. I ran easy on the I-35 loop until I finished up the I-35 bridge, and then started the 10 x 1:00 fartleks. I averaged 8:11 pace during the 2.35 miles of fartleks, and 8:32 pace for the entire 5.2 miles of running, including cooldown and warmup (I cut across at the Pfluger bridge and then took an extra loop around Auditorium Shores for my route). It was really humid today, but not too bad temperature-wise. I did some moderate stretching afterwards, and then went into RunTex to spend the rest of a gift certificate that I had, purchasing some running glasses. I've gotten tired of buying cheap sunglasses for running and replacing them every year.

Now, it's time to finish up my long list of pre-race stuff around the house, including a little cross-training with mowing the yard this afternoon. :)