I've been running a lot of long and slow miles and some short and fast stuff (namely races). However, my training has lacked goal paced running. I did a little of that over the last few weeks and the hard half marathon last weekend surely helped. Today, I wanted to do my last quality workout before the marathon in 2 weeks. The plan was 15-17 miles at goal pace (6:51 per mile).
Originally, Dorf was going to try to run about 8 miles with me. Then, when I asked for others to come along, Flo, Mel and Emily all said they would do some of it later in the morning. Therefore, I elected to wait to run with them.
The plan was to meet at Ironton Rail Trail, since that is about the only place that is plowed. I was figuring on three loops. It would be a good place to run and refuel/rehydrate every loop. It turned out that Emily didn't see the time change and thus showed up earlier. Mel isn't feeling too well, so he opted out too. I kept waiting to see that Flo wasn't going to come either (because of the way things were going). I actually felt bad that I didn't stick with Dorf, but I saw him before the run and he told me that he would've struggled at that pace anyway.
The weather was around 30 degrees, so that is about the best I can seem to hope for these days. I planned to wear only one layer, but all winter stuff. That included a headband and gloves. With the faster pace, I figured that I would probably ditch those and I was correct. It didn't take long before I wasn't running with either one. For the race, I might need to go with shorts regardless of the temperature.
I could not believe how packed the parking lot was. It was nearly full. Luckily, there were a couple spots. I was thrilled when Flo arrived. I looked forward to some company. Flo hasn't been running much due to life commitments, so she wasn't sure how well she'd do, especially with the crazy pace I was planning to run.
The nice thing is that it starts with a downhill. That makes for a good warmup. We flew down it. I was slightly ahead of Flo. I wasn't too concerned with this first mile, but at the same time, I didn't want to be too far off of goal pace.
I wanted to hang with Flo, but as I saw the pace was around 7:20, I felt like I needed to go faster. She said before the run that she was okay with me taking off. I still felt bad leaving her behind. However, I needed to try to hit my goals for this run, to give myself some confident and a better understanding of what I can do.
Now, I was on my own and it was all about cranking out fast miles. That first mile was a 7:15. I was merely going to try to hit consistent 6:51 miles from there on out. Running consistent on this course, with the hills, was a bit tough.
Things did go much better over the next few relatively flat miles. I ran back to back 6:45 miles. Then I was almost dead on a 6:52 mile. Much closer to goal pace. I was finding it difficult to not run too fast. I'm fairly comfortable (although it is challenging) at running around 6:40 miles. Slowing down around 10 more seconds per mile would be huge in a marathon, but it is hard for me to do right now. I need to get better at that, or I might crash early.
There were so many people on the path. It was nice having all of the people to run by. I saw my friends Tim and Aaron running the opposite way. I ended up seeing them twice on this first loop. Tim said something to me and I wasn't sure what it was until later on. He was telling me that Todd was up ahead too. Seeing familiar faces was a big help.
There is a detour section on the trail and I struggled some with this section. It is a short, but somewhat steep uphill. That slowed me to a 6:54 mile, as did the long, gradual uphill toward the caboose. I don't mind a slower mile or two, as long as I'm not off too much.
I saw Todd as I went up this hill and he ran down looking for Flo. I knew getting back to the car would be a big help. I grabbed a quick drink and toweled my sweaty face off. I headed back out. This time, I headed in the opposite direction. I wanted something different, plus I wanted to see Flo and Todd coming back to finish this loop.
I saw them after not too long and they commented how strong I looked. It was good to see friendly faces again and I was glad Flo had someone to run with. Now, I had to worry about continuing to hit my goal. The first loop, I was successful, but it was more difficult than I anticipated.
The downhill start of this loop was awesome. It caused me to run mile 6 at a 6:38. I followed that up with 6:45, 6:46 and 6:47 miles. Continuing under goal pace was definitely a challenge. I tried to stay focused on each additional mile. I also concentrated on running to the end of the loop. I knew that brief rest would be very helpful. At that point, over 10 miles would be in the books too. I would at least be satisfied with that.
I pushed up the hill near the finish. Mile 10 ended up being a 6:42. During the first stop, I only took water. I had a gel in the car, so now I took that as well. I knew I'd need it for the challenging third loop. The first two took more out of me than I expected. Tim and Aaron were done running and leaving, so I chatted with them briefly.
I headed out the opposite way again. These loops were going by quickly at this fast pace. I had not felt like I had run 10 miles already. Thanks to this downhill start, I ran another 6:37 mile. The quads were sore and didn't enjoy the restart after stopping. They got better after some time though. I guess the gel kicked in because I flew through the next mile. It was a 6:35. I was now under pace and going faster than I planned. I could've probably held back, but I just went with it.
With a bit over 2.5 miles to go, another friend Stephen came up to me. He was going to see how long he could last at this pace. It wound up not being half a mile. The brief company helped. I felt bad that I couldn't stay with him longer, but I had to keep on going. He might've been able to hang longer if I was running 6:51, like I said I was planning, rather than 6:36 (my current mile).
I was now alone and running through the boring part for a third time. I fell back to 6:40 for mile 13. I was curious to see what my time was for the half marathon point. It was about 1:28:45. Not long ago, I couldn't even run a half marathon that fast. In fact, technically that is the second fastest I ever ran a half marathon (behind only last week).
Shortly after the half marathon distance, I saw this lovely lady in blue coming up. Of course it was Flo heading the other direction. She wasn't with Todd, but I was glad to see she was still going.
After seeing her, I was heading toward some uphill. It wasn't a lot, but I knew it would take some work to finish the loop. Instead, I decided to turn around and try to catch Flo. I had a mile and a half to do it. I figured if I saw her up ahead, I'd push even more too.
I was starting to slip though. I ran that 14th mile at 6:53. Even that took a lot of work. I think I was fighting a slight headwind. The discouraging thing was that Flo was so speedy that I couldn't see her up ahead at all. Not even when I had a long stretch that I could see far ahead.
I was slipping a lot in the final mile and actually the pace for the beginning of that mile was quite slow. I pushed and pushed and pushed through the final half mile. It was a tough battle, but I survived it. I finished with a respectable 6:54 mile. My entire run was a 6:47 pace. I was very satisfied.
The only problem was that I had over a mile to get back to the start now and that included an uphill. I was completely dead. I was able to see Flo way up ahead at the end. I thought about yelling to her, but she was so far out. I also thought about trying to run to her, but I figured her pace was still too solid.
I then thought I saw her walking briefly at a road crossing. I was going to walk back at that point, but I decided to run slowly. I thought it would be nice to get to her and finish up with some easy running and a nice conversation. I could never catch her though. I didn't time this mile. I finally saw her back at the car and she had done 10 miles (although it was a struggle).
Even though I didn't have anyone to run with for most of the run, I was grateful for everyone that came out and it was a big help. It didn't feel like a solo effort. I worked harder than I would've liked, but it was good to get a feel for what is necessary in two weeks.
If I'm being honest with myself, running a sub 3 hour marathon is probably a little out of my grasp. However, I'm still going to go for it. The big thing is that this course seems very friendly with a downhill start and flat out and back finish. Today's route was definitely not easy. No matter what, it is going to take a smart race for me to do well at the marathon. If achieving goals was always easy, it wouldn't be any fun. Quite frankly, my last few race goals were rather easy for me. This one will be a big step up.
Tomorrow is certainly an off day. It is going to snow anyway. My quads will probably thank me for the rest. I'm thinking of running 5-7 easy miles on Tuesday. I'll likely run Thursday and Saturday again. Maybe next Sunday will be 10 miles. It would be nice to have Flo and some other friends for that one too.
15 miles - 1:41:49 (6:47 pace)
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