Wife has her graduation parties today around 2pm so I had to get my work in early. I'll try and run this afternoon, but figured I'd share something that just dawned on me the other day. I'm sure it's obvious to
everyone else, but I'm slow (in more ways than one lol). I just realized that pace vs speed is not linear! For instance, to go from a 15:00 pace to a 14:00 pace is only a 0.27 MPH increase, but to go from a 5:00 pace to a 4:00 pace is 3.0 MPH! That's good for us slow people since it gives us lots of encouragement since it doesn't take much to drop our pace times. I never realized the significance of a 5 second PR at the elite level, nor the difference between times in a race. For instance, the difference between a 4:30 (10:17 pace = 5.83 MPH) and a 4:20 (9:54 pace = 6.06 MPH) marathon time is completely different from a 2:30 (5:43 pace = 10.5 MPH ) to a 2:20 (5:20 pace = 11.25 MPH) time. Still a 10 min improvement, but at the elite level, you've got to run .75 MPH faster to get that 10 mins vs .22 MPH for the slower time. Hopefully my math is right so I don't look like a fool. :-)
So for us mid to back of the pack runners, getting PRs is "easier" than at the elite level. I know it's all relative, and a PR is a PR, but it takes more and more strength, endurance, etc. to keep getting those PRs as we get faster. Never
really thought much about that until I was on the TM the other day and
watching the pace as I increased the speed. At first, the pace went
down quickly, then I got smaller and smaller pace decreases as the speed
increased. LOL I'm such a nerd, but didn't realize that until
recently. For us visual learners, here's a graph for ya:  If I don't get my run in today due to other obligations, at least I contributed to the value of the blog. Unless this is common knowledge, then I just contributed. Update: I got my run in tonight! Yeaaa! I had planned to go to the track and do 3 x 2mi repeats at about 10k pace. I only had time to get in a warm up mile, two 2mi repeats, and a cool down mile with a 0.2mi walk (to finish off my 10k) :-). Warm up mile was faster than I had planned, went right into the first 2mi repeat, focusing on about a 8:10 mile for each, slow jog until my HR was down to about 130 (paused the Garmin), then started my next repeat. Final lap was fine but pushed it the last lap to get my time lower. Splits: 8:13, 8:04, 7:54, very slow jog for 300m, 8:02, 8:06, 8:11 The track was totally busy when I first got there. Can I just say how glad I am that I have a Garmin? I was able to run in lane 5, 6 and not have to worry about how to convert the lap in those lanes to an actual distance. I just run in whatever lane until my watch beeps letting me know the mile is up. Love it!!
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