Notes
So I decided to not do track work today because it's been raining the last few days and the dirt track is kind of mucky. Instead, I decided to do my steady-state today. Drove down, did a 10 minute warm-up, and then started. Goal was 10 mi @ 6:20/mile. Course is generally pretty flat. A couple miles gently slope up, and a couple miles gently slow down. It's a 6.2 mile paved loop that is also a public road with low traffic. People still don't slow down though :'( .....anyway did this in the morning after drinking a little water and eating a granola bar. Overcast, breezy, temperature around 70F with a 66 dewpoint. It therefore felt a little on the cool side, but I have to remind myself that in North Dakota I might have opted to not even do a workout in weather like this because I'd be worried about the humidity; now, it's one of the best running days of the week!
First 4 miles were right on pace and I felt smooth and comfortable. 5th mile was a little quicker but I still felt like I was exerting very little effort. On the 6th mile (which is an uphill mile and beginning of the 2nd loop), I started pushing because I wanted to hurt today- I wanted this to be a hard workout, and after 5 miles it just wasn't. The pace slowly dropped over the next few miles. Sometime during the 7th mile my legs started turning to brick, which started increasing my breathing. I made the decision to try to keep progressing the pace downwards and stop at 9. Then I walked and jogged a cooldown (yeah I walked, and it felt great, running not so much)
Takeaways:
1.) I did a 5 mile tempo on this exact road a few months ago. This run was 4 miles longer at a faster average pace than before. Last time I ran it was sunny and warm, but I still think this demonstrates how much stronger I've become.
2.) 6:20 felt EASY, and I'm wondering if somewhere in the 6:15-6:20/mile is my marathon pace right now, because as soon as I dipped into 6:10 and faster, that's when I started laboring.
3.) Dropping a few 6:00 miles at the end of this is a good confidence booster. At my peak in college, I could do long runs where my last 8-10 miles were 5:40-6:00 pace, so I'm slowly crawling back to what I was.
4.) I know this didn't end up being a steady-state run like I had planned, but honestly I just got impatient and wanted to drop the pace today. I know I can't be impatient in a marathon, but it's been a long time since I've been able to do a longer workout on a flat road in good running weather, and I just wanted to see where my boundaries are, which I now know.
1- 6:20
2- 6:21
3- 6:16
4- 6:17
5- 6:11
6- 6:08
7- 6:06
8- 5:59
9- 5:57