Fast Friday

Friday means fast miles. It was my last half marathon pace miles before the Kaiser half marathon on Superbowl Sunday. Today's plan was to do the middle 7 miles of a 10 miler at 6:40 pace. I've given up finding flat courses around here (unless I want to do lap after lap on the track) so had a course that went out 5 miles and back 5 miles. Planned to start the HM pace stuff at 1.5miles and end at 8.5.

This meant a 75' climb in the first 1/2 mile, then down 200' over the next 3 and a bit. Then a climb back up of 200' after the turnaround. The 7m ended at the top of the hill, which was a little masochistic.














First mile was about 7:00, which was OK due to the climb. Next 3 miles were fast at 6:28 with one half mile dipping to 6:20 pace. Then I turned around. I knew I'd run about 6:25-6:30 going out, so needed to run 6:50-6:55 coming back, so I tried to keep in that range.

It was very wet and pretty windy and not a lot of fun. First 2 miles back averaged 6:54, then I had a 90 degree turn and was running into a headwind that seemed a lot stronger than the tailwind was on the way out! Slowed me way down to 7:12. Managed to get things back on track with a final mile at 6:57, which included the final climb to the peak.

Overall the 7 miles were at 6:44, which seems close to 6:40 but over a half marathon, 4 seconds/mile is almost a minute. Average HR was 167, which is about right for half pace (miles 2-8 of my last half averaged 168).

So where does that leave me for Kaiser....?
...it's gonna be close.
......my excel charts/data say I can do 1:27:30 or better
......this run says it's gonna be hard
...Kaiser course is much easier than today
......there's a 2 mile downhill stretch that I can do at 6:15ish - that's ~1 minute saved!
...race effort is more than training effort
...race adrenalin helps
...competition helps

So, surprise surprise, my plan is that I am going to go all out. Data says I can do it, so I'm gonna believe that and not what my body is telling me. I'm going to pace for just faster than 1:27, (6:37) for the first 4.5 miles - I know I can do that OK. I'll run the downhill 2 miles flat out (6:15 ish) and see where I am halfway through as I come out of the park and hit the coast road. I figure I should be on pace for a 1:26 but the 2nd half is harder and I'll be on teh edge by then. I'll try to hold the 6:37 pace as long as possible and then hope that adrenalin/guts carry me home.

That gives me a chance of a monster PR down around 1:26, but also a reasonable chance to meet my actual goal of 1:27:30. Of course, it could all go horribly wrong and I could end up dragging my ass home in something the wrong side of 1:30, which would be a big blow to my unrealistic sub-3 goal for Edinburgh.