Training continues! The race is now less than three weeks away. We hit a big milestone last Saturday with an 8-mile run in 68 minutes 7 seconds. My goal had been to get under 8:30 pace for the 10 miler, but now were are right at that pace for an 8 mile training run! This is very encouraging. Some of the old fitness from years of running is coming back, enough for a run I was really pleased with on Saturday. It was a 35 - 33 negative split. I was relaxed on the way out and pushing a little on the way back, especially in the last half mile.
What this training run tells me is that sub-85 in 10 miles is possible without exerting maximum effort. It's time to raise the bar and take the next step. One thing I've learned from years of slow progress in high school is that improvement is often incremental and will only very occasionally come in big jumps. I also learned, over many races, that I do much better when running an even or negative split, and not coming out of the gates with guns blazing.
With all that in mind, I'm planning to bring my target from 85 to 84-minute pace in the first half of the race, then see how things are feeling around mile 7. Doing my first half in 42 I think will keep my legs fresh, without going so slow as to throw out the possibility of running a time I can be really happy with, for my current level of fitness (which is very low compared to my youthful days). On my 8 miler, I was going out in 8:45 pace whereas 42 would be 8:24 pace. I think that's about right based on how I felt last Saturday.
Saturday's run was also in the high 20s, fairly windy, and snowing a little. Conditions are likely (though not guaranteed) to be friendlier on March 16th.
Regrettably, it looks like the donut shirt is unlikely to make an appearance at this race, due to lag time in us getting the donut passports in the mail, as well as a delay after they are received. I will continue to sample race gear as we get closer.
Otherwise, 1.5 mile regular runs have been going well; I'm aiming to get at least one 3-miler in this week, too. It is a little strange jumping up all the way from 1.5 to 10. I would love do be doing 3 milers for my regular runs, 5 on Wednesday mornings and 10 on Saturdays, but time constraints currently make that untenable. That would mean 27 miles per week, which is still so little but it's significantly more than the 17 I put in last week. In high school, 40 mpw was normal, and in college it was 50. Qualifying for Boston would take 60-70 mpw. It's very simple: the more you run, the faster you get. Also, you can't run more (and thus get faster) if you're injured. This classic LetsRun article lays it out pretty nicely.
Until next time!
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