Casual Running , Stretching & Motive Race Goals

This morning was simply spectacular. Perfect crisp running weather, bright sunshine, and except for a fairly substantial breeze, it was really nice. Today's workout was the Day-Before-The-Race super easy 30 minute run, strides and stretching. I took advantage of the workout description by starting and finishing dead last in the herd, going super easy. (We ended up with 3.1 miles at 9:42/mile). I felt great out there, and the easy miles loosened my legs up just as designed. Alex wanted to do 10 striders, but we compromised on 8 x striders, and those finished off the deal. Everyone was smiling and happy after a week of indifferent weather, and I think there was a good bit of excitement about tomorrow's race.

Stretching was very nice, too, as we used our new favorite spot in the sunshine. It was cool enough that the sunshine felt great on us as we went through the full stretch-a-thon. Since it was such a short run, there were 4 golden retrievers there at the stretching as guest dogs. They were all better behaved than Ranger, that's for sure. :-) All in all, it was well worth getting out there. Delivering the coolers to Bonnell in time for the first wave of runners means waking up at 6:00am, which isn't awful, but I do get cheated out of an hour's sleep for a workout like today. I did get in a nice nap after arriving at RunTex, though, so it all worked out fine. :-) I didn't sleep through the workout's start in my car, so that was a good thing, too. This time, I woke up and stayed awake when my alarms went off in the car.

As for race goals for tomorrow, I guess I'll lay out a tiered approach. The weather is supposed to be perfect, between 45 and 50 degrees. As always, my primary goals are to run a negative split such that my pace for the first 7 miles is slower than my pace for the last 6.11 miles, and to run my best miles at the end so that I can pass people. Specific time goals are as follows:

Comfortable Goal: 1:48:00, 8:15/mile pace, my course PR from last year. This should be pretty easy to break. Famous last words...
Reasonable Goal: 1:44:52, 8:00/mile pace. Again, should be attainable. This would still be off my lifetime PR, but would be a nice run on this course.
Silver Medal Goal: 1:43:30, 7:52/mile pace. Lifetime PR time from Indy 2006. On this course, this will require some hard running late, but it's within the realm of possibility.
"Is This Chart Right?" Goal: McMillan's tables say 1:42:15, 7:49/mile pace matches my Scenic 10 Miler race effort. The courses aren't equivalent, but I'll keep this in mind, at least if things are going great late in the race.

Alex is thinking about "jogging" along with me, acting as a bodyguard and pacer, since even my wildest dream pace would still be a minute per mile slower than his PR pace for the half. Frank might tag along, too, depending on how his back is feeling.

My race plan is to get through mile 7 at something at or near 8:00/mile pace, regrouping during mile 8 (there's a few nasty little climbs during the first part of mile 8), and then racing the last 5.11 miles to go after overall time goals, depending on how I feel. With this race, the key things are to protect your legs during that long steep downhill during mile 4, and then to get through the long climbs in miles 5, 6, and 7 without totally blowing your race. Once you get to mile 7.5 or so, the course is pretty benign, with only some subtle inclines to mess with your mind late in the race.