I decided early on in the week that I wanted to run a half marathon time trial today, as I have not raced anything recently (other than a track 3200), and I can't seem to find suitable races to run even when looking in other states. My main issue is finding the time (and money) to travel somewhere else. With a new baby, things are even tighter as far as scheduling goes. I will probably do this again during the month of August, and potentially in September as well. The main issue that I had previously when running speed work was in finding a place suitable to run fast, in a location where I would have the ability to get fairly constant pace feedback. I found a good place for this in discovering that the loop around the Galleria Mall is almost exactly 1.25 miles. I was able to use maps to measure out quarter mile markers on this loop. The benefit of this is that I can now run speed work of virtually any distance interval, with whatever sort of recovery I want as well. The drawback is that the distance is not as accurate as I would like, and when you are running a long tempo (or HM time trial such as today) any inaccuracies in distance tend to add up. I tend to think that the loop is a little long (because it is so slow), but at least it is consistent, so it is a good gauge of progress for me. In order to beat the heat and run the time trial without needing to worry too much about overheating, I got up at 4:20am and was running by 4:35am. I ran a warm-up of about 2.75 miles, and after drinking some of the water I brought with me and running some strides, I stashed the water bottle on the curb (so that I could get water half way through), and I started the time trial at 5:05am. My goal coming in was to run each lap at 7:00 or faster (5:36 pace). This doesn't seem like it is very fast, but on this loop I struggle to go sub 7:00 for more than a couple consecutive laps (which is why I think it is long, although the hills may have something to do with that too, so I don't know). An average of 7:00 per lap would give me a finishing time in the 1:13 range, which is a little slow, but fast enough for my purposes today (especially at the end of a 100 mile week). After the start my lap splits (for each 1.25 mile loop) were as follows: 6:53 - Faster than I was expecting. I didn't want to start off slow, but I did not feel like I was pressing the pace either. 6:53 - I decided to change my goal, and shoot to average 6:53 for the rest of the time trial, which would put me in the 1:12 range at the finish. 6:54 - Just a little slower than I wanted. I wondered if my new time goal was too aggressive, but I did not feel like I was pressing and I continued onward. 6:52 - Back on pace, going through 5 miles in 27:32 (just about 5:30 pace). A mild wind started to pick up during this lap, and the wind helped/hurt me intermittently over the rest of the time trial (although it really was fairly mild to be honest). 6:53 - Hit my "half way" mark in 34:25 (Total distance was 10 laps plus 0.6 miles, so I thought of this as a half way point of sorts). Really feeling like this is a solid marathon pace, which is good, but I don't feel like I can sustain a pace that is much faster. 6:52 - I got my water at the beginning of this lap, so I was surprised that I had sped up, considering I had to come to an almost complete stop to pick up the water. I also carried the water for about a minute and a half while I drank it, so that can't have helped me pace-wise. 6:48 - I was not expecting this at all. I did feel like I picked up the effort a little, but not enough to speed up by 4-5 seconds for one lap. 6:50 - Hit my 10 mile mark in 54:55 (27:23 for the last 5 miles). Feeling strong. 6:47 - Still surprised that I feel as strong as I do considering how I felt early on, and also considering that the low temperature this morning was forecast at 80 degrees (probably about right). 6:46 - 1:08:28 for 12.5 miles. I am now 22 seconds under goal pace, and looking at breaking 1:12 (vs the mid 1:13 I was hoping for before the start). 3:10 - Ran the quarters from 12.5 - 13 miles in 1:17, 1:18 (not as fast as it sounds because it is downhill), and then ran 35 seconds more to estimate the time for the last 0.1 miles (uphill, so not as slow as it sounds). Total time was 1:11:38. I ran the last 5 miles (from 8-13) in 27:07, so I am glad that I finished strong on a tough course in semi-hot weather. Overall, I was very happy with how things turned out during the time trial today. The pace overall was not too strenuous, and I feel like I could hold this effort for the marathon if I just start a tiny bit faster, and then don't hit the middle miles as hard as I finished today. If I do this on a fast course in better weather, this will bode well for my shot at the OTQ.
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