Pace Running

Monday it was time for a marathon goal pace run. Now, let me give full disclosure here, and point out that it is rare indeed that a group of Gazelles actually runs this workout at true Marathon Goal Pace (MGP). Something about the innate character of our herd makes it more of a race effort than MGP, but again, that might be just me running too fast.

The plan was to go an easy 2 miles, then pick up the last 8 miles of the Longhorn Dam Loop at MGP, or, as Gilbert suggested this morning, "Maybe a little bit faster than MGP." "Little bit" was left to the individual runner to decipher. My tentative MGP is 8:30-8:35 per mile, for a marathon goal of 3:40-3:45. I will further point out that my last two attempts at long pace runs with the group were miserable failures in the August/September time frame. I walked in on both of them, which contributed to my decision to bail on Chicago. So, today's run was very important to me on a psychological level. The physical part was just dragging my body around the trail, and wasn't nearly as critical to me as the mere fact of setting a pace and maintaining it for 8 miles, battling whatever mental daemons that might decide to visit. Weighty stuff, huh?

Anyway, about 8 of us rolled out at 5:45 on a 60 degree morning and began our journey around the trail. The two warmup miles were actually quicker than I sometimes run them, but that's more normal behavior from the group as it nervously approaches the task at hand. A quick drink of water at the rest stop on the trail, and it was time to go! Frank rolled away in a hurry, it seemed like, and Randy and Marcy also got a big lead when they decided to skip that initial water break. I found myself running by myself, trailing some of the Philly marathoners (Ward, Dennis and RuthAnn). My first mile was way quicker than I had anticipated, at 7:55, so I tried to dial the pace down on mile 2. This was unknown territory, since I haven't raced in quite a while, and as noted above, I didn't want to go out too fast and then have to slow to a crawl late. Prudent judgment of pace is the name of the game on this workout, after all. Hence the name...

Anyway, I settled down into a rhythm that felt relatively comfortable and sustainable, and just kept on a'rolling around the trail. It was pretty pleasant, and except for some concentration required on the scattered uphill bumps of the trail, I felt pretty relaxed about the whole deal. Miles rolled by, and I was checking my splits irregularly, just to make sure I wasn't going too far one way or the other off my pace. That groove took me all the way to the finish.

It was a pleasant change to have the sun come up during the workout, so we could actually see the trail surface quite well after about mile 3. That made a big difference to me today, in that I was much more secure about my footing and could just focus on the running effort instead of worrying about a misstep into a hole in the trail. I saw Randy and Marcy grabbing a quick cup of water at Mopac, but I just decided to keep on going to the finish. Let's call it racing strategy. :-) RuthAnn was taking a short water break as well on the Mopac footbridge, so I eased around her as well.

As I entered the last couple of miles, I could sense RuthAnn trailing along behind me. I didn't turn around, but judging from others who were on the trail at that time, it couldn't have been anyone other than her. I used that to keep me honest over that last stretch, making sure I kept the pace up to the finish. I only looked back one time, on the Barton Springs footbridge. It was just a quick glance, and I saw her orange singlet in my peripheral vision. Okey dokey. I could hold her off for a mile, couldn't I? I used all the sneaky racing tricks over that last mile...speeding up on any sort of rise in the trail, putting on short bursts going around corners, and accelerating a tiny bit if I heard her footsteps getting a little louder. It was sort of fun to be able to do all that for a change!

Anyway, the finish line came and went, and it was a fabulous pace run! MGP? Well, probably not, but for me, the value of having run a consistent pace effort trumped any value in having done it at my perceived MGP. What are the stats, you say? For the day, it was 10.1 miles at 8:19/mile, including the short water stop, the early warmup miles, and the pace miles. Snappy! My 8 miles of pace running were knocked out thusly: 7:55, 8:14, 8:00, 8:02, 7:52, 7:53, 7:56, 7:40, and a final 100 yards at 7:02/mile pace. The 8 pace miles were at an average of 7:56/mile, quite a bit quicker than my proposed 8:30/mile MGP.

This was a big win for my psyche today, even if it told me next to nothing about what my MGP should actually be for White Rock. :-) Oh, yeah, this was the second workout in my new speedy shoes, Mizuno Precision 7's. My Filas have expired, and the newest iteration of that shoe has not yet been released. Schade. The Precisions work nicely, although I'm not sure if they'll be my marathon shoes. Probably, but I'm not for sure yet.

Basically, the rest of the week is easy street, marking time until the 20-22 miler on Saturday. I'm looking forward to that run in a big way.