7.2mi, 62:44

Journey, "Only The Young" (jwer, this one's for YOU!)
Goo Goo Dolls, "Hate This Place"
Cub, "Voracious"

Racing shoes today for time trial...which wasn't much of one. Estimated racing shoe odometer is around 20.

WX at 0500: 73/23, DP 71/22, BP 30.10/1019, winds variable 2, drizzle. RH 100%.

Z3-Z4 mostly. I think three days of 7.2 back to back is starting to take its toll, but on the bright side, I dropped below 179 for the first time in over a year. This is significant as the weight at which I don't have to get taped for body fat percentage.

I always like to have a few extra pounds below just as insurance, but the intense pain of trying to get down to that weight (the last time I weighed 170 was after four months in Kuwait of running 35 miles a week, seven years ago) implies industriousness that I sometimes just don't have.

Today reiterates the philosophy that racing shoes are almost as much mental as physical. They are lighter, at the cost of foot protection (although I have pretty normal biomechanics). The mental boost I get just from wearing them is significant in itself. There's some value to feeling faster because of wearing a pair of funky fresh shoes that weigh less than 7 ounces. The most insane shoe I ever wore in that regard was the Nike Duellist, which I wore for a season of indoor and outdoor track in 1989. The Duellist weighed 5.1 ounces. They were also completely trashed and for all intents and purposes, squashed flat by the middle of spring track. I had transitioned back to cross-country spikes by the end of that season, which may have paid off when I got tapped to run the 4x800m relay and ran a 2:23 PR. Yeah, I'm that slow. Bite me.

On the other hand, if I can sustain running 7.2 regularly, versus the 7.2/4.8 on-off cycle I've been doing, I may realize that goal with comparatively easy effort.

Tomorrow needs to be a day of intense sluggitude, much like yesterday.

Splits:
1.4: 12:14
2.0: 29:40 (17:25)
1.4: 42:11 (12:31)
2.4: 62:44 (20:32)