Friday night I set out for a Marathon Pace (6:55) tempo run. I had 44 degree temps, SSE winds running at 18mph with 24mph gusts and a 36 degree wind chill.
I set out for a mile warm-up in a headband, gloves, vest, long sleeve shirt, tights and my brand new Brooks Glycerine 5s. After my 8:12 w/u mile I ditched the vest on my front porch, stretched for three minutes and took off.
The plan was to run a sedate four mile tempo run in 27:40 or so. The reality is that I went through the mile mark in 6:44.66. It felt pretty easy, I wasn't breathing hard but I made myself slow down and went through the two mile mark in 6:48.03 with a total time of 13:32.69. I had a rhythm going and still felt good so I ran mile three the same way and hit the split in 6:45.10 and 20:17.79. Mile four was 6:43.96, 27:01.75.
I was closer to 26:40 than 27:40 but I still felt like I could have gone another mile without too much difficulty. Two more would have started hurting but wasn't out of the question.
Saturday was a litle cooler with temps in the low 30s and a wind chill of 24 and I met the Bionic Woman at Panera. She was six miles into a 16 miler and I ran the last 10 with her. We took a few water stops and dropped our jackets at our cars at my 7 mile mark and covered our 10 in 1:25:30. I'm pretty sure we were running right around 8:00/pace without the stops but it was pretty relaxed. I was a bit sore from my hard week but loosened up pretty well.
Next week will be more of the same. I'll probably do cruise intervals (miles) on Wednesday and an 11 miler on Saturday before cutting the miles back a little the week after that. I would like to get my long run up to 15 before my half marathon but I'll be happy with two or three runs of at least 13 miles.
I intend to run a 5k on March 8th in Decatur just to see where the fitness is at.
This week last year I covered 29.25 miles with the highlights being a 4 mile tempo run in 29:32 (splits of 7:30, 7:24, 7:29, 7:09) and a 10 miler in 1:24:19. This week last year was cold! None of my runs were completed in temps over 25. Tempo run day was 16 with a WC of 5. 10 mile day was 19 with a WC of 9.
Brrrrr!
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4 comments:
Heckuva' job on that tempo run. That's great. 6:55 marathon pace suggests you might be eyeing a BQ performance in the not-too-distant future?
We'll see. I'm not really itching to run another marathon quite yet. I want to get a few good half marathons (preferably well below 1:30) under my belt before then. I also want to wait until Nathan and any other kid that comes along are a little older. I would love to get a BQ but I'm not going to put myself through all that training until I'm sure I can do it.
The 6:45 pace was pretty nice. Provided things go well on race day for the Lincoln Memorial I believe that I will run my 1:35 with no problem. I'll let you know how I feel in a few weeks when I get my tempo up to 6 miles.
I started the week with a 6.75 mile run. Normally, I try to ride on Mondays, but it was too cold today (lower 40s).
Tomorrow, I plan to do something a little shorter and a little quicker. Maybe I'll steal your 4-mile tempo run idea.
Go for it. I've decided I like tempo runs. I'm always afraid that they're going to hurt and I'm pleasantly surprised when they don't. They make me feel strong and fast.
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