March 27th Preview

Complications abound this weekend. It's Easter and the store won't open, so we'll start/finish at Alton Baker Park. It's McKenzie River Half day, and some runners will choose that race. And I'm due back from a spring-break trip, but barely and could be delayed. If you can make it there, you'll still run the scheduled nine miles.

The route, from Alton Baker parking lot with 8:00 start: bike path to Owosso footbridge and across. Turn left, to end of residential street called Copping. (You'll part with our marathoners at this point.) Turn AROUND there and go back in opposite direction: Owosso and Alton Baker. GPS distance unmeasured but about 9.0 miles.

Bring a drink for delivery at turnaround (4.5 miles) and finish. Weather forecast: starting temperature in 40s with low chance of rain.

WEEK 5 LESSON: YOUR PACE

Question: How fast should my long runs be?

Answer: Let your pace find itself. Don’t try to force an arbitrary pace (such as a half-marathon time goal) onto these runs. Instead, run comfortably, letting whatever happens with your pace happen. Finish with the feeling that you could have gone a little longer that day, which you will do soon enough. Our more experienced runners might want to train for speed during the week. I recommend that this come between Tuesday and Thursday to give enough recovery from the last long run and before the next one. If you run a shorter-distance race during this training period, make it easy. A full effort there would conflict with your weekend long run, which is far more important during this training cycle.