T-minus 6 weeks!!

Once again, I haven’t gotten around to posting mid-week.  Maybe it’s a welcome change from the mundane posts I used to do after EVERY RUN.  However, I’ve got a couple things planned to write about so I really need to bust out a post or two besides the weekly wrap-up.

I did 10 Saturday!  That’s right.  Double digits.  12:56 average pace.  Since I did this run on a marked trail, I marked my splits every mile

Mile 1 - 12:24 
Mile 2 - 13:22 (ran into a friend on the trail and walked and talked for about a minute, forgot to stop watch)
Mile 3 - 12:44 
Mile 4 - 13:07 
Mile 5 - 12:59 
Mile 6 - 13:16 
Mile 7 - 12:57 
Mile 8 - 13:05 
Mile 9 - 13:07
Mile 10 - 12:36

I’m fairly happy with the splits, since I kept a fairly consistent pace.  I was hoping to stay under 12:30 pace, but I was also careful not to go too hard (conversational).  I think had this been a race, I could have pushed the pace up to 12:30 maybe 12:15,  but it would have been hard a few points along the way. 

This run felt pretty good.  I took 4 shot bloks with me and had 2 at mile 4 and 2 at mile 7.  I felt them, but I’m not sure I took enough.  3 and 3 may have been a little better.  My legs were seriously threatening to give up the last mile.  I had enough left to push (just a little!) the last mile and finished feeling strong, if in pain.

I’m feeling generally confident about completing the 13.1 without walking.  I have to admit I’m discouraged at the lack of improvement in pace, though.  I won’t be alone during the race by any means (35,000 participants) but I’m afraid of an “embarrassing” finish time.