Pace Runnin'

Monday, it was a very small group who met at RunTex at 6:00am for the scheduled 10 mile pace run. There was confusion about the start time, more on that later. It was just Alex, Jan, Brad, me and ... aaaaggghhh! I can't remember the fifth person. Hopefully, it'll come to me. The drill for today was to do a full warmup as if we were racing, then go out and run the 10 mile loop pretty hard. It's supposed to be at "marathon race pace," but that means something else for Gilbert and our training. Since I'm behind on these, and I don't have a fall marathon, I was going to run a pace loop of just over 7 miles. I got only fitful sleep last night, again, so I was sort of out of it, but I figured I'd see what happened with the run anyway.

The warmup was nice and comfortable, and we saw Leslie coming the other way from Barton Springs while we were out there. After our leisurely 1.7 miles, I did a few strides to further loosen up, while the Chicago folks did the full drills. About this time, we saw a pretty good group of folks heading out for their warmup. They thought it was a 6:30am start time for warmups, followed by a 7:00am start for the pace run. Gilbert and Bernard had mixed up their times, with some help from us on Saturday. No big deal, really, but it caused some hard feelings with some folks.

Those of us ready to go at 6:30 am lined up at the marker, and we were off. Brian joined us after a very brief warmup, so we had a decent sized group, mostly in the same pace demographic. Alex tore off immediately, as he should, and Brad followed fairly close on his heels. The rest of us didn't spread out much. I hung out with the main pack for the first couple of miles, but after checking our mile two split, I decided to move on ahead myself. From that point on, I was running alone.

I settled into a nice pace, running by feel, and made just the briefest water stop (a NASCAR "Splash and Go" at Holly) before skirting the softball complex and finally arriving at the official Powerade stop at I-35. I took a little longer there, making sure to get plenty of Powerade, and then I moved into the homestretch of my shorter run. Making good time, I spun up the ramp at Pfluger bridge and then raced pretty well to the "tape" at the Zero marker. After a quick cup of water there, I did another victory lap of Auditorium Shores just to help my body come down from the quicker running.

My numbers for the actual pace run: 8:56, 8:28, then I pulled away on my own for 7:58, and 0.65 miles at 8:05/mile pace. Quick 12 second stop there, and then 7:54 and 0.37 miles at 7:50/mile pace. Full Powerade stop in 0:55, then 7:57, 8:02, and 0.37 mile finish at 7:23/mile pace. That was 7.4 miles of pace running at 8:17/mile pace, including water stop time. Way better than a couple of weeks ago, and it made me pretty happy. Actual running pace was 8:08/mile, also pretty good for me.

I did 1.72 miles of warmup running and that 0.67 mile victory lap, as well as 6xStriders. Total mileage for the morning was a respectable 10.1 miles.

It seems like everyone had a good run this morning, so spirits were high as we finished off the post-run work. With the holiday, we even had a full stretching session, and Alex, Frank, Jan, Brad, Pete, and Brian joined me for that. It was a nice morning, fairly cool (or at least cooler than it has been), and there were smiles all around.

I declined the kind and tempting invitation to go to Magnolia Grill for breakfast nirvana, and headed home. After last week's terrible workout compliance, I score today as a full out "A."