We did a lot of dead lifts at the gym yesterday focusing on strengthening the back. I don't think that I have ever taxed my back muscles before so they were completely trashed. Wasn't even sure I would be able to run today. My hope was that my back would loosen up once I started running.
Race started and it was incredibly congested. We had a hard time hitting our target for the first mile because of the congestion. Still only a few seconds slow. We maintained a good pace all the way down the canyon and along Hollow Road. We were within a few seconds of our goal time up until mle 9 or 10. Once we dumped out to the highway, we didn't back off as much as we should have. That is one of the hardest things about pacing. The slow down on the last 5k of this course is a little more than other races because of the gradual uphill. When you are pacing, you are still relatively fresh and are able to maintian a good effort, putting you ahead of your goal time. Ended up getting ahead by 45 seconds going into mile 12 where I thought we would be able to give back some time because of the hill. Hit that mile in exactly what the paceband said so still had too much of a cushion going into the last mile. Slowed it down to 9:00/mile and gave back 15 seconds and came in 30 seconds early. Not too bad but further off than what I would have liked. My justification for coming in early is that with this big of a race, it is better to come in a little early in case other runners chip times are not in sync with ours.
After finishing, I put in another 7 to get to 20 for the day. The back held up really well while running. Now that I'm done, it is killing me and I can barely walk. | 