I have a long recovery time between my Wednesday morning speedwork session and my Thursday evening LVRR Group Run. That usually mean I can push fairly hard in the group runs. That said, it doesn't hurt to slow down some times. I did just that tonight.
It was the usual 5 mile loop around the Parkway. Since Kelley and none of the other faster runners were there, I told Akshay he could lead and I'd just take up the back of the group. I wanted to do this anyway since Jen got a bit lost by herself the previous week. I didn't want to leave her behind.
Akshay stayed ahead of us and I ran with Jeff as well as Jen. Jeff said he was having some issues with his ankle and had not run much in the last few weeks. He only planned on a few miles. I ran between him and Jen. The pace was a little over 10 minutes. That's significantly slower than I normally run.
My legs were thanking me for the slow pace though. They really enjoyed it and my lungs liked no having to work so hard. After we crossed the Robin Hood Bridge, a woman passed us. Akshay followed her and it made a good pacer for him. I hung back with the other two.
Shortly after we got past the clubhouse, Jeff started having some problems. He just quit and headed back. I stayed with Jen. We chatted a little and I stayed just ahead and pulled her along. It worked too as we got faster and dipped just under a 10 minute pace.
Jen had not run the big hill by the Fish Hatchery. I asked her and she said she wanted to try it this time. When we got to the Fireman's Bridge, Akshay had circled back around to us. He went up the big hill too. He hasn't done that in awhile either. I kept trying to pull Jen along. She did quite well and made it all the way up without stopping. Naturally, the pace slowed, but I was so proud of her. I was happy for myself too because sometimes going up the hill slow bothers me. Not today though, it felt fine.
The hill definitely did take something out of Jen. Our pace kept slowing and slowing. I tried to slow down for her to catch up, but whenever I did that, it seemed like she slowed more. We got passed by a guy with a dog that had an annoying rattling chain. Thankfully, he was much faster than our pace.
I ran with Akshay for a lot of this portion of the run. At times, he would go ahead and then walk for us to catch up. We chatted some. I wanted to make sure Jen got up all the other hills and she did.
The pace had slowed to like 10:13 as we started coming downhill for the third mile. I want to get a bit of speed going, so I picked up the pace and ran hard. My final mile was under 9 minute pace and overall the pace dropped to just under 10 minutes. It was a good bust of speed at the end of the run.
Sometimes it is nice to just slow down and enjoy the scenery. I'm planning on pacing the Runner's World Half Marathon and my pace will be around what we did tonight. This was some good practice. I'll have to work in some other slow runs too before then. It isn't exactly easy to go slow. It takes some practice, just like going fast does.
This was a good day to help someone along. That's about as rewarding and accomplishing things for yourself. If I can help people get faster or pull them up a tough hill, I'm thrilled. I want to coach sometime, so this is good for that.
Now that I'm done, I am surprisingly sore. Nothing bothered me during the run, but my quads are sore now. I think using muscles differently at a slow pace was the culprit. It is good to work some other muscles too though or to work them differently anyway.
Tomorrow will be another easy day. It will be faster than today though. I'm not sure where I'll run. Maybe Mill Race Park. Since Friday is only a 4 miler, I usually pick somewhere close. Saturday will be 13 miles with the BCR. Maybe I'll even go to 13.1 miles just to hit the half marathon distance.
5 miles - 49:46 (9:57 pace)
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