Settling in

Thankfully, I'm starting to feel pretty comfortable in these pace ranges.    Have I mentioned that I'm using the Mcmillan Calculator to find these?   Check it out here.  It is such a useful tool.   I wish that I had started using it with my very first race.  I think I have mentioned before that my race pace is 8:31.   (I feel silly saying 8:31 instead of 8:30, but I figure on race day at mile 23, that one second per mile might be the key to holding the pace.)   Saturday called for a 7 mile run at race pace.   I decided to run mile 1 easyish and then find 8:31 at mile 2. 

When I heard my nikeplus guy say that mile 1 was done in 8:57, I thought, "Great, right where I wanted to be."    Letting that first mile be a true warmup no matter what the workout has really been such a wonderful thing.   So, mile 2 I concentrated on picking it up, but only a little bit.   I really wanted to resist my body's natural urge to push into the tempo pace range.   If I felt myself getting winded at all, I would put on the brakes a little.   I was happy at mile 2 to hear that I had done an 8:23.   I don't think I tried to pick it up for mile 3, I tried to remain steady, but probably due to the lack of sea breeze in mile 3 and my overall feeling of "this is a good running day" pushed me to a 8:17 third mile.   Here are the rest of the splits.....
Mile 4: 8:23
Mile 5: 8:18
Mile 6: 8:20
Mile 7: 8:20

These splits are very encouraging to me.   While this pace still feels like a pretty good clip, it is starting to feel more and more comfortable as the training weeks go by.   It definitely isn't an intimidating pace; at least for 7 miles......26.2 might be a different story.   But that's what the next 3 months are for, right?

After taking Sunday off  (and by off I mean no running and lots of yummy food at our church potluck....fried chicken, enchiladas, and chocolate chip cookies to name a few of the favorites), today I had a 60 minute tempo run planned.   I was a little nervous that my over-indulgent eating would make my legs feel heavy, but I think that it may have been much needed fuel because I felt GREAT today.   (I've been dieting the past couple of weeks and I think I may need to add more calories because I felt so strong after yesterday's buffet....I want to feel that way every run.   It is so hard to find that happy medium though.)    My plan was to do the first mile as a slow warmup, then an 8:45, then an 8 minute mile, then a 7:45 minute mile, then let the last 2 miles be easy.    My splits were:
Mile 1: 9:41
Mile 2: 8:36
Mile 3: 7:45
Mile 4: 7:43
Mile 5: 8:14
Mile 6: 8:18

And the best part was that I never felt like I was pushing super hard.   I was a little winded during mile 3 and 4, but in that "this feels great" way.   And then the last 2 miles I just ran what felt comfortable and was oh so pleased to hear that "what felt comfortable" was an 8:15.     Yay!

Tomorrow I have a 6 miler with 3 miles being race pace.   Then Wednesday, a 14 miler.  Hopefully my legs will feel less brick-like than during last week's long run.  Happy running everybody!  ;)