Pace Tour d'Lufkin

Sunday was a full day off of running, etc., and was spent helping pack up stuff in Mary Anne's old room back in Lufkin. We still actually had a few wedding gifts from 20 years ago that were stored there! They were nice gifts, too, like silver trays and stuff, but we don't exactly host a lot of elegant dinner parties. I don't think silver trays are necessary or even proper when serving chicken fajitas, chips and hot sauce. :)

Anyway, this morning, I followed the schedule and set out in Lufkin to do my first pace run since Freescale. These pace runs will be aimed at the Indy half marathon. I headed out the door at 7:00 am, and started with 20 minutes of easy running to warmup, per Gilbert's instructions. Those 2.1 miles were something like 9:30/mile pace. Nice and easy on a really great running day. It was about 42 degrees, crisp and clear. By the end of the warmup time, I was turning off of Southwood, going towards the old tennis courts.

The pace portion began there, and the intent was to do 5 pace miles, to simulate the 7 mile loop in Austin. I had a great time running up past friend's houses, my grandfather's old house, and all the way to my father's office, where I turned around and retraced my steps. Only in a small town could I be running down First Street during what is technically rush hour, and not worry at all about traffic. I ran using my HR monitor to beep at me if I cranked it up too much past hard long run pace, and that worked really well. My pace miles were 8:28, 8:00, 8:08, 7:48 and 1.25 miles to finish at 7:47 pace. It was a solid run, and faster than I had expected. I backed off at that point, per the plan, and jogged in from there, 1.2 miles at around 9:50/mile. I felt really great today, and fast portion of the day felt exactly right.

Total day around 8.6 miles, average 8:30 pace. Once I got home, I did 4x25 crunches, 2x10 pushups, and 2x20 back raises, and stretched. A good running day. Now, I get to go and finish packing up Mary Anne's stuff to transport back to Austin, and then we're off to Mississippi. Next 3 runs will be out in the country.