8 mile pace run

This morning, Gilbert assigned us a new marathon pace run. We were to do the Longhorn Dam 10 mile loop, taking the first 2 miles easy, and then shifting into a "solid" but "comfortable" gear after that for the last 8 miles. Not quite as aggressive as the progressive 10 miler, but a solid test. I had thought a pace of 8:40-8:50 during the 8 mile speedy portion would be about right.

I got to Auditorium Shores about 9:30 am, and saw Gilbert working with a fellow Gazelle on the circuit training stuff. He told me to run the loop counterclockwise, so that when I was pushing, I'd be safe from traffic. Since I had originally intended to run the loop clockwise so I'd have to run the Riverside hills at pace, this was good information. He also told me to go out and run at a pace that felt comfortable but strong. 80% effort, again, whatever that really is. I figured I'd let my GPS watch do its thing, but I'd ignore the mile pace numbers, and catch the info later. For pacing, I'd rely on my HR monitor, to run to a number there.

It was bright and sunny, with a stiff wind that was blowing out of the East. Temperature right at 60 degrees. I was almost overdressed with my long-sleeved running shirt, but I did wear shorts, so it wasn't too bad, really. The first couple of miles were pretty relaxed, and except for pushing up the backside of the Riverside hills, I kept my warmup HR down where it was supposed to be. First 2 miles were at 9:03/mile average pace. Probably a little fast, but not terribly so.

I shifted into pace gear, and ran to a HR number for the next 4 miles. Pace for first 4 miles was 8:40/mile, perfectly according to plan. HR was starting to rise a little with the extended effort, so I chose a new HR number to run to, about 5 bpm higher than initially set. Took a GU at about 5 miles total, and I was drinking Accelerade that I was packing during the run.

Last 4 miles were probably run too hard, but I just got into a groove, and kept on running. The wind pushed me around a bit coming back towards the finish, but I kept up a good pace, and knocked out the second 4 miles of pace at 8:22/mile. It's just hard to avoid picking up the pace at the end of a Gilbert workout (unless there's a programmed cooldown portion at the end).

I was pretty happy with this run, but I may have run it a bit too fast. My HR did get up to an average of 10 bpm over my initial "pace" number, which may or may not have been a good thing. We'll see.

Overall, the 8 miles of pace running were at 8:30/mile pace, and the overall pace for 10 miles was 8:37/mile. I did some stretching afterwards, and that felt pretty good as well.

It was a good day at the running office, albeit a bit faster than I possibly should have run.