83:59

That's the time in which I ran my half marathon time trial this morning.

The leg was feeling much better yesterday and last night, so I decided to at least approach this morning with the option of running a half time trial. I was always prepared to back out if my leg wasn't right or body, or whatever...

Set the alarm for 4:30. Got up and changed quickly, had a strongly mixed sports drink, put on the new heart rate monitor (a Polar S410 passed on by my good friend, Pete) and got out the door. I ran fairly conservatively to Komazawa in about 5:30 pace. Had a slight tummy pain so released some ballast, but not terribly satisfying, so I thought that might be a possible source of sabotage. Ran up to the top of the course and then 380 m past the start line to correct for the 380 m longer than a half marathon that 10 laps gives (it is 2.148 km/lap).

From there on it went something like this:
(Edit: my goal was to go sub 84 minutes.)

Lap		Elapsed		Split	Distance	Average pace	HR at split
1		0:07:13		0:07:13	1.768	0:04:05	151
2		0:15:48		0:08:35	2.148	0:04:00	167
3		0:24:20		0:08:32	2.148	0:03:58	157
4		0:32:47		0:08:27	2.148	0:03:56	171
5		0:41:19		0:08:32	2.148	0:03:58	155
6		0:50:11		0:08:52	2.148	0:04:08	157
7		0:58:50		0:08:39	2.148	0:04:02	160
8		1:07:26		0:08:36	2.148	0:04:00	160
9		1:15:54		0:08:28	2.148	0:03:56	164
10		1:23:59		0:08:05	2.148	0:03:46	171
					21.1

The last lap was pretty amazing. I knew it was a big ask to get under 84 minutes. But I ran it hard anyway. I always thought I was going to end up at 84:05 or so, no matter how hard I tried, but I pushed really hard up the hill, and then where it levels out with 150 m to go I just pushed really, really hard, and then as I hit the 50 m to go line I saw I had 10 seconds left, so I got my little legs turning over as fast as they were able. I reckon I might have looked a bit like the road runner. Beep beep! And I gave a little whoop when I saw that :59! That slower sixth lap was because of a 12 second water break, so I am prepared to take this as a new PB.

Yaaaay!

Had a few twinges in the leg, but not too bad. I think I know how to manage it now.

Edit: I wrote the above pretty quickly to make the "morning edition", as it were. But there are a few other details I wanted to add. I've largely copied and pasted it, with a few edits, from an email I sent to Colin.

1) Perceived effort was relatively constant. I experienced some leg tiredness in the later stages, but I don't think I ever really went lactic. It never became a struggle to hold on to the pace. But after the fifth lap, I did feel a bit tired and took that short drink on the sixth and deliberately decided to ease off just slightly for a little more recovery. Only a few leg niggles gave me any thoughts of pulling up, but I thought, oh fuck it, I'm on track for this...

2) After the rest on lap 6 I was well and truly over the hump and just held pace for laps 7 and 8, cranked it up a bit for 9 and then put the foot down for 10. As I checked the split at the end of lap 9, I knew I needed about an 8-minute lap to get under 84 minutes and didn't really think it was possible. It was such a buzz to squeek in.

3) It was a really beautiful morning, and on the seventh lap, the one after I'd had a "rest", the sun was pouring golden through cottonwool clouds to the east. This view was just for that one lap and only in the 300-m section right at the top of the course near the swimming pool. But it was beautiful, and I knew I was on track for a big PB, and at that one moment all of space and time dissolved and nothing else mattered -- it was just magnificent!

4) After I finished there was no time to hang around and celebrate or reflect. I just broke into a jog and kept running all the way home. Slowly.

5) It feels weird to have done this all alone. No witnesses apart from some joggers and dog walkers and old folk walking in the running lane. Did it really happen? Was it a dream? For the time being, there are splits on my watch and a dull fatigue throughout my legs that say it was no dream. And that's good enough for me.