It is very windy out there this afternoon. But, I really wanted to try to run a few marathon pace miles. The problem with trying hard efforts on windy days is that your feedback is off. You can run harder than normal into a headwind and come up with a slower pace, or you could run with the wind and come up with paces that are faster than normal. On a day like today, I prefer the latter. My goal marathons, L.A. and Mountains 2 Beach (formerly Ojai 2 Ocean) are both net downhill races.

So, today, I left my house and headed west on Elizebeth Lake road to the aqueduct. From my house to the path and up it to Chucks 2.5 mile turnaround point happens to be 2.5 miles!  So, as I headed down toward Ave S on the aqueduct my miles pretty much aligned with the marks on the pavement. About halfway through the 6th mile, heading east on Ave S, I decided to speed up to marathon pace. I did it for awhile and then felt like maybe today was not today, so I backed off. A minute or so later when I glanced down at my watch it still looked like I was doing marathon pace, so I reengaged my mental drive and focused on holding it for awhile. Coming down from the freeway to Sierra Hwy is a pretty big downhill, so some of the paces ended up way under a 7:25 goal pace. Still, the last couple of miles were on the flats of East Palmdale as I was headed toward my awaiting wife at the Super Target. As the road flattened and block walls and trees eliminated the wind, the pace stayed up there.

Good Run!