I'm putting in quality mileage during this cold winter. If there is one issue, the cold and wind make it hard to put in faster workouts. I decided that I needed to try to speed things up a bit this afternoon.
I've run faster than goal marathon pace and slower than it, but I haven't really done any goal marathon paced running (6:51 per mile). The plan was try to get a few miles of that done in the cold this afternoon.
The weather was difficult today. Not only was it around 15 degrees again in the afternoon, but the wind had picked up a bit. I knew I'd have to work to meet my times. The plan was to run at Riverview again, since I know that it is clear. I wanted to run 10 miles.
I wore the usual attire. I needed the fleece vest, but didn't want anything more than 2 layers because I was planning on running harder and sweating more than usual. I had my lighter gloves and headband too.
I started off heading on the road toward Hugh Moore Park. It was nice and comfortable. That was good for the moment, but it meant that I'd be going into the wind when I ran around the park. I went over to the park and hit the headwind right away. It was difficult. I wanted to do one loop around there and then head toward Easton.
I planned for a 2 mile warm up. As I left the park, I was almost 2 miles into the run. I went up a hill and noticed that my shin seemed to have a tweak, so I started what would've been the first fast mile off a bit slow. Then, I felt fine again, so I picked it up.
In the beginning of this faster segment, I was kind of disappointed. It said the current mile was just under 7 minute pace. I was hoping with the effort I was putting in, it would be a little quicker than that. I was pushing harder than normal, but trying to run more in the moderate effort range.
I guess my body got into a groove because before long, the pace dropped under 6:40. I was happy with that. If anything, maybe it was even a little faster than I would've liked. I focused on being consistent and continued to watch my pace.
One thing that was nice was that I was running with the wind at my back. That first faster mile was a 6:40. I turned around part way through the second mile and that was a 6:41. I kept at it.
It was now tough because I was fighting the wind. Still, I wanted to work hard, but not too hard. I wanted this to be an effort that I'd be capable of sustaining during a race for about 10 miles or so.
I slipped a little in the next few miles as I headed back. However, I was just trying to be solid and I continued to be under goal pace. I ran a 6:43 mile and then a 6:45 mile. It wasn't too long ago that I couldn't even run that fast in back to back miles. My improvement is impressive.
I got back to Hugh Moore Park and figured this was my last hard mile. I made sure to work hard against the wind and keep it under goal pace. I had the wind at my back toward the end of this mile. I had not been looking at my watch for the total distance. I began to realized that I might've thought that I ran a mile farther than I actually did. I ended this harder segment with a 6:44 mile.
When I looked at my watch as I headed toward Riverview, I realized that I only ran 5 fast miles, not 6 of them. I didn't have the desire to push for another mile though, so I slowed down. I still had 5 quality goal paced miles in terrible conditions.
Since I had 3 miles to run yet and my legs were dieing, I felt terrible for awhile. It seemed to take forever too. I was now running almost 2 minutes per mile slower than I had been earlier. I ran out toward the Boat Launch for over a mile and then turned and headed back.
They plowed some of the path across the road from Riverview, so I ran there. I went under a bridge and up a hill slightly. I was finished with 10 solid miles in the books. This was just the workout I needed. I can't wait until it gets warmer and I can run even faster or even farther at goal pace.
I'm now up to 38 miles for the week. I'll probably be in the 60s when it is over. I'm thinking I'll run 10-12 miles again tomorrow. They will all be easy. Most likely, I'll head to Riverview again. I might get tired of it, but it's convenient and they take good care of clearing the path. The scenery isn't terrible either.
10 miles - 1:15:21 (7:32 pace)
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