Plan was to run 7 miles up Emigration and turn around, with the first 4 being a warmup, then the next 10 at MP effort (HR between 168-174 bpm). I stopped at the 4-mile mark and ate a bag of Jelly Belly Sport Beans, which tasted great but wouldn't work as race fuel due to the effort required to chew them. The next 3 were at MP effort but slow because I was trying to keep HR below 174. I stopped again at the turnaround point and downed a PowerBar gel (Vanilla). After last week's trouble, I decided to try sipping instead of gulping. The flavor was so sweet that I had to drink a lot of water, which would also disqualify this stuff as race fuel. Fortunately, though, I kept it down just fine. After finishing the gel and stretching for a few minutes, I headed down the canyon, where I focused 100% on HR and didn't think about pace. Here are the splits for the entire 10 miles: 5-7 (still climbing Emigration) Mile 5: 7:16 (168 bpm) Mile 6: 7:28 (173) Mile 7: 7:28 (174) 8-15 (down Emigration) Mile 8: 5:33 (165) (I pushed the pace hard here in order to bring HR back up after my rest) Mile 9: 5:50 (173) Mile 10: 5:59 (173) Mile 11: 5:58 (173) Mile 12: 5:59 (174) Mile 13: 5:51 (175) Mile 14: 5:56 (175) I felt tired but not wiped out at the end. Still feeling some tightness from water skiing at Bear Lake on Tuesday, but otherwise no problems. I suspect that my pace would have been faster had I not done so much climbing before the tempo section, but hopefully the climbing is good preparation for Veyo to Dammeron Valley at SGM.
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