7 Miles

I've been thinking a lot lately about marathon pace. Although my goal is to just finish the marathon there has to be a system at play to get me there. I feel it's all about the pace. Based on my experience with running and long runs I know I fall in the range of a 12-12:50 pace. Of course I base this on half marathon training not a full 26.2. So, I want to find a pace that is comfortable and leaves room for the inevitable slow down and walk/re-fuel breaks. I need a pace that is slow and steady so no matter what my finish time ends up being I'm standing tall and proud at the finish and not burned out from going too fast or too erratic in my pacing.

Since it's still early in the training I wanted to experiment with a slightly faster pace for my 7 mile run today. I was curious what I could maintain and if it felt too fast then I know I should probably tweak it back to something slower next time. I usually make a pace wristband for a 12:15 pace and today I made one for a 12:10 pace (well once it calculated everything it had me running the first mile at 12:08) but, the goal, finish in 1hr 25 min.

My co-worker who is also registered for the Kiawah Marathon met me this morning and he was cool with staying with me on that pace (although I think I'm holding him back, but he says he's good). The run was pretty strong and steady but mentally I felt a little off my game and kept flashing back to a dream I had last night where I was in this really cool race and was super excited to be running but my legs wouldn't go! I felt as if I had a cement block tied to each leg. Thinking about that dream and still being tired from the week it felt a little hard and discouraging today. BUT having said that the splits weren't too horribly off the goal, and we never walked. Even more after mile 4 we decided to try a new route for the next 3 miles and there were lots of hills! At the time it felt a bit grueling but in hindsight I'm very glad we ran them because I think it's excellent training anytime you can include hills. The last .25 mile or so we picked it up together and maintained a nice sprint which was really fun and encouraging to know I still had gas left in me after feeling challenged the entire run. Just as I heard my Garmin beep that 7 miles was complete I hit the stop button. I looked down at it again and was so surprised that it hit the goal time EXACTLY on the nose. 7 Miles 1hr 25 min.

I like having the long run on Saturday, it's done. Sunday is cross-training (yoga) and Monday rest.

Mile 1: 12:05
Mile 2: 11:50
Mile 3: 12:21
Mile 4: 12:19
Mile 5: 12:26
Mile 6: 12:20
Mile 7: 11:42

Total Miles: 7
Total Time: 1:25:00
Avg Mile: 12:09