Even though the weather was ideal, I wasn't overly enthusiastic about starting the run. No matter what kind of shape you are in, an 8 mile run or a 10 mile run is still long. It still takes awhile to complete.
I decided that I would go to a new trail. That always works well when I feel like I could be a little stale. Over the summer, the BCR ran at the Columbia Trail in High Bridge, NJ. I couldn't make it that day. It is a little over half an hour to the trail from my house, so I decided to head there for the afternoon run.
I was debating a bit on what to wear for the run, but I made the right choice in the end. I didn't know whether to wear arm warmers or not. It was only just slightly chilly when I was walking though, so I elected not to wear them. I went with short sleeves, shorts and calf sleeves. It was perfect attire to go along with my minimalist shoes.
I started off on the trail and it was still quite chilly. My hands were cold and I had to blow on them. That didn't last too long though. The trail is a beautiful stone path. It follows an old railroad bed. It starts off high in a gorge and overlooks a river below. With the trees, you can only see the river at spots. Now that fall is here, it looks beautiful with the leaves beginning to change color too.
I refrained from looking at my watch in the beginning. I didn't even check it until it beeped at the first mile. That was a good, easy 9:02. I was on my way to a nice and relaxing day. The one thing that did suck is that they had mileage markers at every quarter of a mile. That is just too often.
This first mile was tough as it was uphill. The second mile wasn't any easier. I was plugging along. I wondered if I would ever get to a downhill part. I completely missed the beep of my watch at the 2nd mile. I looked down shortly after that and to my surprise, my overall pace was around 8:30. I didn't feel like I ran that 2nd mile much harder than the 1st, but I must've really warmed up because I knew that that mile had to be around 8 minutes. I don't run too many 8 minute miles in training unless I am getting pushed by a training partner or doing speedwork. That was a big surprise.
I continued along on the trail and it seemed like the climbing would never end. I knew that if I climbed this much in the beginning, it had to be downhill when I turned around. My legs were a little sore, but I kept plugging away. Somewhere around the 5k mark, I crossed over the river on a nice pedestrian bridge. It was pretty to see the river far below. After that, the river was now on my left side. I was running on the other side of the gorge.
I wasn't working any harder, but again my times when down. The 3rd mile was around a 7:45. With the exception of speedwork, only one time this year did I run under an 8 minute pace for a training run. That was a couple weeks ago when Aaron pushed me at a group run.
The trail began to flattened out at this point and my pace when down even more. This 4th mile was the one that really stunned me. I came through it at a 7:02. It didn't feel like a 7:02 mile at all. It didn't even feel like a 7:30 mile. It was fast, but relatively easy. I'm sure there must have been some downhill at this point.
One of the great things about this trail was the lack of road crossings. There were a bunch right in the beginning in High Bridge. After that, there was over 5k until the next road crossing. Even that one was a lightly traveled road.
Aside from the river, there was plenty going on along the path. A lot of the houses along the path put up little things along the trail, like ceramic mushrooms or gnomes. Weird little things like that. There were quite a few people out walking and a lot of bikers. I was surprised that I saw that much activity. It seemed like the area was somewhat remote and the temperatures aren't great for normal people. Just good for runners. A dog also barked at me along the trail. I was glad it didn't chase me. I assume people that live next to a busy trail wouldn't let a dog out that was going to chase people, but you just never know.
Earlier in the run, I was counting miles until the turnaround. Going uphill was tough and I was just hoping to get to mile 4 and at least get 8 total miles in. Now as I hit mile 4 and beyond, I felt awesome. I almost didn't want to turn around. Right before mile 5 and the turn around, I came to a populated area and a road crossing. The path when along a paved road for a bit, but I turned around before getting very far on it. This 5th mile was still run at a 7:13.It was a little tough going at the beginning of the way back. I think it was probably uphill just a bit. I focused on getting to mile 6 and just thought to myself that I had less than a 5k to go until mile 8. Watching my overall pace continue to drop was a big boost. It was at 7:50. Then before I knew it, I was down into the low 7:40s.
Mile 6 was the slowest mile of the second half of the run and even that was a speedy 7:25. I haven't put down too many 7:25 miles in training, other than speedwork. Things got a little easier at mile 7. I came through that one at 7:12. I think the course flattened out.
I was excited that not only was my pace still dropping like crazy, but I knew this final 5k had a lot of downhill and would be even faster. Knowing that I had less than a 5k to go was a big help. I was getting such a runner's high.
By this point, I couldn't help but start pushing it some more. I was probably into what you would call a comfortably hard pace. Somewhere around the 5k point, I saw my overall pace was 7:39. I thought that it would be great to get under 7:30, but I really didn't think it was possible. The 8th mile changed that though as the pace kept dropping and dropping and dropping. Before I knew it, I was flirting with a 7:30 overall pace. The 8th mile was a blistering 6:48. There was a lot of downhill, but that was still impressive considering that is what I run during speedwork repeats.
The final two miles were where I really pushed it. Even with saying that, they still weren't as hard as last week's final mile and a half during that progression run. I was now into the biggest downhill part of the run. At times, I felt great as I was descending, but it didn't feel as good as I thought it would. My legs were beat from the previous 8 miles, regardless of how much downhill I was running now.
I put in back to back 6:44 miles for each of the last two miles of the run. With half a mile to go, I checked my pace for that mile and it was at 6:38. I could have kept that up or gone even faster, but I figured that I had done enough already. I even sort of cruised in the final tenth of a mile. I was still breathing hard though. It was great to be done.
I was happy with Saturday's race and felt like I could've done more. With that said, I began to question whether or not I can run a 7 minute pace for an entire half marathon. Granted, it will still be tough, but a great run like this is a big boost. I don't know if it was all the weather or the way the course was setup or what, but I exceeded my expectations by far today. If I get conditions like this on race day and feel good then, I'll crush my goal. If I really pushed it, I might've been able to run this whole 10 miler around a 6:50 pace, and that would be on my own, not in race conditions. I am truly amazed that I could run it at a 7:24 pace and still have something left today. That is after a slow 9 minute first mile and second mile around 8 minutes.
I don't know about the extra tenth of a mile, but my final three miles were run at 20:16. That is a 6:45 pace. My best 5k race time of this year was 21:29 (6:55 pace). That means I likely ran that final 5k faster than my 2012 5k PR. With 7 miles already on my legs, I am stunned I can do that, even with the aid of downhill running. What a great day.
When I was planning to run 17 miles with Flo on Saturday, she asked me if I could run a 7:30 pace. I told her that I could do it for at least 10 miles, but I really I wasn't completely sure. Now I know I can.
This was such a big confidence booster for me. I hope I can continue to run this well in the cooler fall weather. If I can have these conditions on race day, I will be thrilled. It is supposed to warm up some more for the rest of the week. I'll likely run 7 or 8 miles tomorrow. I have to make those easy and make sure my body is recovered for the speedwork session on Wednesday. I might need to get up earlier on Wednesday to see if I can run in similar conditions to this afternoon. That would help my mile repeats.
10 miles - 1:13:52 (7:24 pace)
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