Pace Running

This morning had similar weather to Saturday, which should be no surprise, I guess. We gathered at 5:45 for the pace run, and everyone is feeling pretty good by now, as the Chicago folks head into week 2 of their taper. I partnered up with Diana and Amy for our shorter 7 mile pace run (2 easy, 5 pace), while the Chicago peeps did a 2 easy/8 hard version. Within the first quarter mile, we had lost sight of everyone else, as we cruised along nice and easy. Amy competed in a triathlon yesterday, so she was going to do 7 easy miles to get into the habit of the Monday pace run. Diana was going to see how she felt, but thought she'd do the pace portion quicker.

We really ran easy the first couple of miles, and after crossing the I-35 bridge, it was time to pick up the pace. Amy settled into her pace, and I pushed on. Diana asked me to wait for her after a bit, so I held up while she caught up with me during that first fast mile. My plan was to slowly put the accelerator down as the pace portion continued, running how I felt. I guess that my pace was a little quick for Diana after a mile or so, and I found myself running alone after we crossed under Congress Ave. It was dark for the entire run, which was sort of fun. It certainly kept me from checking my watch every 5 minutes. I took a quick stop at Mopac for a cup or two of ice cold water, and continued on with some really strong miles down the stretch. After a slow start, I ended up with a pretty good run.

Splits: 9:55, 10:05, then 9:12, 8:26, .6 miles at 7:55/mile, quick water stop, and 7:53, 7:50 to finish up. 6.9 miles, average pace 8:48. (with water stop time, pace to 8:59/mile). 4.8 miles of pace running at 8:17/mile average, again with a slower first mile. Good stuff!

On a warm morning, I'm okay with this run. We did 6x100m striders afterwards, and I felt 100% better this morning than I did on Saturday after the 13.5 miler.

Gilbert called for situps and pushups again, so once we walked back to RunTex, a bunch of us did our core work. I did 2x40 crunches, 2x30 leg extensions, 2x20 "Jan" crunches, 2x20 back raises, and 2x10 pushups. After that, I did stretching, and I felt pretty darned good. It was fun to trade tall tales and humor with Jan, Amy, Alex, Jason and Frank as we stretched.

This was a good start to the running week, technically the first week of Freescale training.