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.