Finally, the Pace Run

This morning at breakfast, John reminded me that I need to update my blog. Today's run gave me some material.

Today we ran our first pace run: 3 X 5 miles at MGP with a short rest in between each loop and a 4-mile warm up and cool down.

I've been worrying that we've done what seems to be so little work at sustained pace. Steve has made up some punishing long-run workouts like Soul Builder I and Soul Builder II, but I can't recall any race pace work since we started the speed phase, so I looked forward to today's run.

The weather was perfect. We ran a 5-mile loop in Travis Country three times.

I started out with Nedra, Christine, John (UT Tennis John, not breakfast John), Katie, Brenda, Julia, Michael, and Dave. If there's a way to mess up a loop, we did it, and missed a turn to cut off the first mile or so. We took some heckling, but we made up the mile at the end of the first loop and got the directions figured out for the second loop.

Christine was soon way off the front and Nedra and I ran together. Nedra is trying to break the elusive 3:30, and I'm trying to PR with a 3:25. To hit that, my race pace needs to average 7:48/mile. A few weeks ago I struggled in Soul Builder II to the point that my coach suggested that I reassess my finishing goal. I'm still not quite ready to do that, and today was my test to help me decide.

I used my watch and the mile markers Ruth had set out to figure my pace. Nedra used her Garmin, or whatever contraption that was on her wrist that kept beeping several yards after we'd passed a cone. Here are my paces for loops 2 and 3:

7:39, 7:24, 7:31, 8:03, 8:10
7:52, 7:23, 7:31, 8:07, 8:00

And by my watch,loop 1 took 44:20 with the rest period.

So, given what I was able to run today under ideal conditions and a badass fellow runner to challenge me and push me along, I learned a thing or two.

If I expect to come close to my goal time, it ain't gonna be pretty. It's going to be alot of me gritting and grunting and gasping my way from mile 1 through mile 26 point 2. There will be no dignity left at all.

I've always figured that one should be able to do this, look reasonably good doing it, keep things together, and PR if you've put your miles in. Sure, it gets difficult at a point, but I figure I've done pretty well if I haven't had to walk, I haven't sobbed, I've finished looking and feeling somewhat strong, and I haven't shmooed in my pants. I imagine someone like Christine floating along, looking lovely, never losing her composure, her sweat looking more like a glow than a struggle, and kicking 26 point 2 miles of ass behind her. Quite gracefully.

But today I learned that all of that will have to go out the window if I'm gonna have a hope of getting close to that 3:25. It's going to be ugly from beginning to end, I'm going to be - again - gritting, grunting, and gasping. There will be no way to avoid it.

As for the rest of today's run? That 4-mile cool down from the Travis Country loop, back across MoPac, through Sunset Valley and back up to Central Market? Ouch. If I could have cried, I would have. I sure wanted to. It hurt, I was demoralized, and I could barely run another step. But it's behind me now and, to quote one of my favorite pre-run songs: done, done, on to the next one. (Foo Fighters - All My Life)

And I'm still not quite ready to reassess that finishing goal, bronze standard or otherwise.

Soul Builder II Team Rogue Workout

Holy moley!

Yesterday's workout: 18 miles from Gateway over to Mesa, down North Hills to Balcones, Hancock, down Shoal Creek Blvd, 38th to Jefferson, down to Enfield, west to Lake Austin Blvd.

Then the fun began. The route took us up Redbud to Westlake Drive, and turned around to take us to the dreaded Stratford Drive. Stratford spit us out into Zilker, and an out and back through Zilker brought us to the Austin High track. That was the first 18 miles. At the track, the plan was to run six more miles (for a total of 24 miles before the mile-or-so cool down back to the pool) hard at these paces to test our fitness and mental toughness and to try to simulate how you'd feel at the end of a full marathon:

2 miles at marathon goal pace (mgp) - 1:57/400m
2 miles at half marathon goal pace (hmgp) - 1:51/400m
2 miles at 10K pace - 1:46/400m

Looking at my watch, this is how I did:
Mile 1 - 1:59, 2:02, 1:59, 1:57
Mile 2 - 1:56, 1:55, 1:56, 1:56 - held mgp nicely in the first 2 miles
Mile 3 - 1:52, 1:53, 1:53, 1:54
Mile 4 - 1:50, 1:51, 1:54, 1:50 - was hovering around hmgp in the second 2 miles
Mile 5 - 1:49, 1:54, 1:53, 1:56
Mile 6 - 1:57, 2:07 (spaced on the lap button), 3:30 for my final 800m (spaced on the lap button again) - never quite got to 10K pace in the last two miles except for maybe late in my last 800 meters when I knew it was my last lap.

Somewhere in my last lap I remember thinking, "I wonder if I'll make myself barf if I keep running like this?"

By my coach's assessment on the team forum, since I couldn't quite get to 10K pace, I'd be what he's terming a "bronze" standard, as opposed to platinum or gold, and I should reassess my marathon goal of 3:25.

Hmmmm. I'm not quite ready to reassess just yet, even though that cool down jog from the track over to Barton Springs Pool was the most painful post-workout I've had in 14 years of marathon training.