Monday, July 23, 2007

Pace Running [Entered 7/25/07]

Monday, I showed up, vocal chords shot from all the jabbering at the reunion parties over the weekend, for a pace run with the Gazelles. I'd missed the first one of the training season a few weeks ago, so I was keen on getting this one in today. Weather was in ditto land, so we can dispense with that.

Kenny was there with Bernard to administrate the workout, since Gilbert was in Missouri for the day. The workout for us was a 3/5 run. That is, 3 miles nice and easy for warmup, and then 5 miles at a theoretical marathon goal pace (MGP). As usual, MGP is a concept that we trample over during these workouts. Just like "80% effort" and "10K pace," these suggestions tend to get put aside once the runs begin.

I did my easy 3 miles with Colleen and David(?), and we arrived at the mobile water stop all ready to go. I grabbed a couple cups of Accelerade and water, and then took off. My sense of pace was probably off, and I darted ahead of everyone for a mile or so. I was definitely too fast for the first mile or two, but it felt okay, so I just found a pace that felt tolerable and soldiered on. I got caught by the time we reached the water stop at Austin High School, and then after a quick cup of water there (only 13 seconds for that one), I took off again. I got caught once more as we hit the trail on the south side of Town Lake, but settled in and managed to recover my pace for the last mile.

It was definitely too fast, but for a workout I'll take it. Splits were: 10:11, 9:55, and 0.93 miles at 9:16/mile (warmups), then a 1:57 water/accelerade stop. Pace miles were 7:59, 8:06, 0.54 miles at 8:07/mile, 0:13 water stop, 8:21, 8:05, and 0.48 miles at 7:43/mile. I averaged 8:08/mile for the pace miles, including the brief water stop. Overall, including all water stop time, I was at 8:59/mile for the 8 mile day. Altogether a good workout. I easily managed to drop my pace over a minute from the 3 mile warmup to the 5 mile pace running, so mission accomplished.

Next time, I'll start out slightly easier on the pace miles, maybe 8:15-8:30/mile, and hope to finish strong.

Once we were done, I did 4 x 100m striders and then called it a day. 8.2 miles for the workout to start the week.

Most of the full stretching regimen followed, and my day was done.

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