Recently, I've totally bailed on blogging about my marathon training. Family tragedy has struck, my home renovations call, life has gotten in the way. But at least I've been able to keep up with the actual training. I don't think I've posted since we did our 15 miles. But since then our elite crew consisting of Steve, my wife and I have inched up past 17 and 19 mile runs. This weekend we'll jump ahead of the group to do our 21 mile run because next weekend the wife and I are away running the Army Ten Miler down in DC.
I love ten mile races. They seem so short anymore. And I really want to do well in it. I'm not even going to pretend that it's a training run. And so we come to an issue. I think at this point as a runner, I actually need to start planning my race pace. But I'm really not that good at picking a pace. I suppose that's the real issue. During the Rock-n-Roll half marathon a few weeks ago I totally miscalculated my optimum pace. I wanted a sub 1:50 time and so paced for a 1:48 finish not taking into account the temperature or my recent training runs. I ended up running a 1:59:58 because I hit a wall at mile 9. If I would not have been trying to be such a manly man, I could have paced myself to finish a 1:55ish. And let me say, that experience really ruined my mood.
So let's play the pace game. What pace should I be shooting for with the Army Ten Miler? All things being equal, I'm currently of the opinion that temperature is a huge factor in how fast I am. I think I really miscalculated my half marathon pace this year based on thta. My thinking was "I ran at 2:03 for 13.1 last year, and I've been running non stop since then so I must be a lot faster by now". But the temperature for the Philly half last year was like 40 degrees cooler and I paid no attention to that.
Last year's Army Ten Miler started with a temperature of 55 degrees. I'm thinking I should run the first 5 miles at my finish pace for my last Broad Street Run, which . And then amp it up(if I feel like it) to 8:15 for the last 5. That would give me my first ever negative split. And a new personal record. But I don't know, I'm for suggestions.
My name is Jim and my wife and I are training for our first marathon. Here's all my training posts to date.
Good luck with the pacing Jim. It is the hardest part of this whole thing. One thing I have to learn (about me anyway) is that no matter how comfortable it feels when I start out I'm probably going too fast. And it snowballs from there.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to hearing how it works for you.
Wishing the three of you a good 21 on Saturday too!
Keep smiling and keep moving.