I was kicking myself when I started my warm-up this afternoon for not getting out earlier today before it warmed up and the humidity hit. However, there was a breeze, so it turned out to be reasonable. I set up an interval workout on the Garmin for mile repeats so I could run on the bike path instead of the track. A little bit closer to race conditions. In any case, the interval workout really keeps you honest on the recovery times. I did 5 x one mile with two minute recovery slow jogs.
I discovered that in the interval mode I set you can't see your pace, just the distance remaining. So I ended up running the first mile significantly faster than I had planned, and that changed things up a bit. I wanted to run the first two at 10K race pace, the third at 5K pace to simulate a hill on the course and then hold the last two at slightly faster than race pace. Because I took the first one out too hard I decided to run the first two fast and see if I could finish the last three at 10K pace. My splits ended up being 6:18 (Yikes!), 6:29 (more reasonable), 6:44(right on!), 6:53 (a little slow), and finished with a 6:42 (perfect). So except for mile four I was very happy. I think the first two at faster than 5K pace probably simulated the big hill in mile three pretty well. The last three miles are downhill, so I just need to keep close to pace by halfway and finish strong. The heat, humidity and breeze made for a realistic challenge. Pretty winded at the end of five, but legs felt strong. Two more full training weeks and a taper to go. |