It Seems To Be Coming Together All Of A Sudden
Shortly after finishing the 5K last Thursday night, I had an urge to run. Anyone who knows me well knows that when I race I leave nothing in the tank. After every race I'm whipped, and the last thing I want to do is more running. But last Thursday night I really wanted to run some more. In fact, when I got home, I almost went out for more miles but it was late. As I posted here, I went for 10.2 miles Friday afternoon in the heat and was not only planning, but eager, to do a long-run Saturday (though I ended up doing only 7.1). What I'm getting at is that since my 5K last Thursday, I've been chomping at the bit to run. While I realize that I had a bit better race than I anticipated, it can't be just that. It wasn't like I PR'd or anything. Everything seems to be in tune right now in my running world and I am going to milk it for all it's worth. Sunday's training run was more of the same - a quality effort that surprised me.
Though I had really wanted to hit 50 miles this past week, doing only 7.1 on Saturday kind of put that out of reach. There was no way I'd be able to sneak off for significant milage on Mother's Day so I waited until we got home from visiting our mothers and decided to go out for a fast 4.4 miles in my neighborhood. I felt like I could probably go well under 28 minutes for this route. The nice weather didn't hurt, and the starting time of around 7:20 PM was ideal for me.
Usually when I do somewhat shorter stuff in training and attempt a fast time, I'm always slow the first mile. Something about getting up to speed in my training runs. In recent attempts to "smoke" this 4.4 mile route my first mile has been over 6:30. And what's worse, I usually feel like I'm really moving only to look at my watch at the 1-mile marker and be disappointed. So imagine my surprise when I looked down and saw 6:10! That was so fast that I began to be concerned that I might mentally talk myself into just going for a blistering 2.2 and doing the return at a leisurely pace. But I knew that if I could keep it up I might have an outside shot at 27 flat, or maybe even a shot at my course record for this route - 26:52, set exactly 7 months ago, October 14.
As I got within a quarter mile of the turnaround I intentionally tried to dial the pace back just a bit so that I could hammer the return. I hit the 2.2 mile turnaround in 13:24. That meant that 13:36 on the return would get me 27 flat, and 13:27 would yield a new PR for this distance. But nothing in my recent running suggested that I am in PR shape so I just vowed to do my best and see what I ended up with. I got to the 1.2 mile point on the return (1 mile to go) in 7:09. So now I'm thinking, if I just post a 6:15 final mile I'll have 13:24 on the return and a new PR for this distance. During the entire final mile I kept hearing the little guy from Fantasy Island who used to say, "Boss, de plane, de plane". (Herve Villechaize, who tragically took his own life a few years ago). Except Herve was saying, "Lance, the pain, the pain". Anyway, I ignored him, knowing that it'd be over soon enough. I clocked a final mile of 5:57 and was pretty pumped about that until I realized that my total time for the second 2.2 miles was 13:06, which works out to a 5:57 pace for the entire back half.
Total distance : 4.4 miles, 26:30 (6:01 pace).
Total milage for the week ending 5/14 : 40.5
Though I had really wanted to hit 50 miles this past week, doing only 7.1 on Saturday kind of put that out of reach. There was no way I'd be able to sneak off for significant milage on Mother's Day so I waited until we got home from visiting our mothers and decided to go out for a fast 4.4 miles in my neighborhood. I felt like I could probably go well under 28 minutes for this route. The nice weather didn't hurt, and the starting time of around 7:20 PM was ideal for me.
Usually when I do somewhat shorter stuff in training and attempt a fast time, I'm always slow the first mile. Something about getting up to speed in my training runs. In recent attempts to "smoke" this 4.4 mile route my first mile has been over 6:30. And what's worse, I usually feel like I'm really moving only to look at my watch at the 1-mile marker and be disappointed. So imagine my surprise when I looked down and saw 6:10! That was so fast that I began to be concerned that I might mentally talk myself into just going for a blistering 2.2 and doing the return at a leisurely pace. But I knew that if I could keep it up I might have an outside shot at 27 flat, or maybe even a shot at my course record for this route - 26:52, set exactly 7 months ago, October 14.
As I got within a quarter mile of the turnaround I intentionally tried to dial the pace back just a bit so that I could hammer the return. I hit the 2.2 mile turnaround in 13:24. That meant that 13:36 on the return would get me 27 flat, and 13:27 would yield a new PR for this distance. But nothing in my recent running suggested that I am in PR shape so I just vowed to do my best and see what I ended up with. I got to the 1.2 mile point on the return (1 mile to go) in 7:09. So now I'm thinking, if I just post a 6:15 final mile I'll have 13:24 on the return and a new PR for this distance. During the entire final mile I kept hearing the little guy from Fantasy Island who used to say, "Boss, de plane, de plane". (Herve Villechaize, who tragically took his own life a few years ago). Except Herve was saying, "Lance, the pain, the pain". Anyway, I ignored him, knowing that it'd be over soon enough. I clocked a final mile of 5:57 and was pretty pumped about that until I realized that my total time for the second 2.2 miles was 13:06, which works out to a 5:57 pace for the entire back half.
Total distance : 4.4 miles, 26:30 (6:01 pace).
Total milage for the week ending 5/14 : 40.5
posted by Lance Collins at 12:15 PM
1 Comments:
Sweet!
Post a Comment
<< Home