W7D2

Here we go! Right into the week with pretty big workout - 9 miles with 7 at marathon pace.

Just what is my marathon pace?

The pace at HOA will likely be approaching 11:00 miles. I imagine our projected finish time will be in the 4:30 to 4:45 ball park. If that's the case I'm already running my long runs faster than marathon pace. Not much of a challenge there, this would just be a relatively long mid week LSD.

I could shoot for 10:00 miles but that still isn't much of a challenge. A 4:00 marathon would mean the MP would be 9:10. My pie in the sky BQ pace (3:30 finish) would be 8:01 pace. Lets not get too crazy here.

I settled on a decent challenge and would try to keep the pace in the 9:00 to 9:30 range. To stay on pace I needed the comfort of mile markers so I went to the San Gabriel River Trail to get the miles in.

After the mile warm up, I picked up the pace. Mile 1 was 9:28. Mile 2 was 9:03; followed by 9:30 and 8:30. Clearly I'm not very good at gauging pace. Mile 5 was 9:03. I then messed up the watch an mile 6 was unknown. I was getting pretty tired. So I mentally gave up and decided to just cruise in the last 2 miles. It turns out I didn't slow down all that much Mile 7 was 9:33, still pretty much on track even though I had given in and tried to slow down. The cool down mile I was finally able to slow down to 10:10.

I was satisfied with the workout. I proved to myself that I could push the pace a little and held it for 7 miles. I've clearly got a way to go to get back to sub 4:00 shape, but progress is progress no matter how gradual.