10 miles at 7am with my running group. Average pace=7:38/m. Weather=58 degrees, 75% humidity, 11mph wind, sunny.
Mile 1- 7:58
Mile 2- 7:45
Mile 3- 7:31
Mile 4- 7:36
Mile 5- 7:49
Mile 6- 7:12
Mile 7- 7:33
Mile 8- 7:33
Mile 9- 7:44
Mile 10-7:41
It started out myself, Emily, Ashley, a girl named Ella (I think), Tim, Monty and James. After a couple easy miles, we settled into a 7:30ish pace. I had to put in my ipod and zone out to Lady GaGa. We lost Ashley and Ella somewhere before the halfway point.
I don't know what the deal was with mile 5 - I think we were going into the wind. At mile 6, Emily dropped the hammer and sped up to 7:12 pace. I hung on to her pace with Monty, Tim, and James for one mile. Then I started overhearing their conversation about lactate thresholds... somehow I lost my mental focus. The four of them were just chatting away like this was easy... yet I was having to work like I was in a race just to keep up. I started thinking, well, gosh now that you mention it, I was probably running at my lactate threshold... It started messing with my head and my confidence faltered.
I fell behind in mile 7 but I was still going 7:30ish. The four of them were about 200 yards ahead of me when we stopped at mile 8 at a water fountain. Monty peeled off to go in a different direction because he was doing 20 miles today. James and Tim said they wanted to slow back down to the 7:30 pace for the final two miles. I did not believe that was possible with Emily there. That girl is awesome!
Sure enough she took off and they followed. I am really pissed at myself that I didn't have the energy or mental power to keep up. Only two more miles, Lindsey!!! My goodness! At least do a 7:30 pace if you can't keep up with them! But no. I couldn't seem to muster more energy. I am very disappointed with myself.
Things I could have done better today:
1- Bad choices about what to wear - wore long sleeve shirt and I had to hold my stupid car key the whole time. Stupid! It just bothered me the whole time and distracted me from concentrating on the pace. Next week I do not care how cold I start out, I am wearing short shorts and a tank. I will also have a better place to put my stupid car key.
2- GU!!!! I need caffeine gu for runs like this. I can definitely tell a difference when I don't use it.
3- Flat out, my endurance is not at the level of these people. All four of them just ran the Cowtown full marathon 2 weeks ago. They've been running 50-60 miles a week. I haven't even had a long run over 13 miles in months and my weekly milage has only recently been getting back up to 40 miles a week. If I am going to have a prayer of hanging with them, I'm going to need to ramp up my long runs and run more miles in the week. I already knew this though. I already planned to do a 15 or 16 miler this coming week.
4- Time for new shoes... or new feet. Ha!
5- I need to get some new songs on my ipod. Lady GaGa is losing its effectiveness.
SOOO.... I do not know if I am in shape to run a 1:37 half (7:20/m) after my performance today. I don't know if it's feasible to get myself in that kind of shape with only 2 weeks left before Dallas Rock 'n Roll. I think 7:30/m is the max pace I can achieve in a half marathon right now. With more training, I can get to the 7:20/m... but I'm just not sure about doing so by March 27th. OTOH, maybe the R 'n R (my first event of this kind) atmosphere and the bands at every mile will help me.... I don't know. | 