6:30pm and 65 degrees. A great night for a run with virtually no wind. So I've been contemplating my speed in the mile last week with some of my longer race times and it just seems that I should be able to run 1/2 marathons at a much faster pace than 6:50s or so. I've had a couple thoughts. First, my tempo runs are geared to shorter distances and a bit faster pace 3-4 miles in the 6:15-6:20 range and that I should be doing 6-9 mile tempo runs in the 6:30-6:45 range. Second, when I race the longer distance, I lack the confidence in my body's ability to maintain a set speed. Having said that, I've always felt I was a true negative split runner. That if I would ever average 6:30s for a 1/2 marathon, I'd have to do it by starting out in the 6:45 range and builing myself down to the 6:15 range. That if I went out at 6:30 6-7 miles in I'd crash.
With this in mind, I put myself to a bit of a test tonight. I went out and got a few miles in around Base pace, then converted over to what I felt was a quick marathon pace and continued to build to what I felt was a 6:45 pace and then see how long I could hold it, running strictly on feel. Along the way I took some time splits, but didn't give much thought to them because I had no clue exactly how far it was between markers. Using google maps I calculated out my splits. The entire run, excluding the .9 mile cool down was 11.1 miles in 1:14:55 (6:44s). As always though, my body took over its natural ways and continued to get quicker through the run. Almost all sections of the run were a net flat grade, but every section had rolling hills that equaled each other out of moderate grade. Here's what it looked like:
2.1 miles in 15:53 (7:34s)
1.85 miles in 13:06 (7:05s)
2.1 miles in 13:49 (6:35s) - This section had a net uphill grade.
3.15 in 19:34 (6:13s)
2 miles in 12:23 (6:11s)
.9 mile cool down in 9:13
While this technically comes out to 12.1 miles, I know the run was actually 12. Trying to get measurements to the nearest .05 of a mile leads to some error, thus the acquistion of an extra .1 on the mileage chart for the run ... not terribly concerned about it, so I'll take it out of my regeneration cool down.
A few notes on the run. First, the last 7 miles of the run, if we could balance the section that was net uphill and make it balance out to a net flat, I was probably looking at over 7 miles at 6:15 average or better. That's very encouraging. Second, around mile 8 I started talking to myself. Ok, lets see if you can hold it through to 9. Then again at 9, try to do 1 more mile. At mile 10 I was convinced I could hold the pace for 1 more mile, and my jaw about dropped when I rounded the corner running mile 10 in 6:08. Truly these last 3 miles were grueling mentally, but I'm certain that in a race where letting up is not an option I'd be able to battle through it. Not sure what to make of this run in terms of what I can and can't do. I'll mull it over for some time.
Pegasus - 53.7 | 