Easier progression 12-miler than I expected. I'd initially planned to take it easy, almost a 12-miler recovery run, after my legs ached through most of work today. But I felt more comfortable as I bumped up the pace early, and decided to speed up every mile from 4 to 10. That progression took me to about MP+5%, which is close enough to MP in my book to qualify, then I ran the last 400 at actual GMP. This, of course, takes into consideration the lesson I described earlier in the week: "Run faster, foo' ." Apparently my legs do not take well to an overly leisurely pace. Too slow is as bad as too fast, plus takes a lot longer. Not for nothing did Bill Rodgers say that he could not imagine what the back-of-the-packers went through in running a marathon in five hours. Faster pace equals longer stride length equals less pounding on legs and feet for the same distance. If I had maintained the original pace tonight, I would have been about 10 minutes slower, and probably also would have been even more tired from about 16-1700 more footstrikes. | 