Sunday, February 3, 2008

Super Run

Chris caught some flu bug and was unable to run this morning with me, so I decided to go out in the front of my neighborhood and set out to do 13 miles. The plan was to do the full run at my marathon pace, which I don't really know. Let me explain.. based on all these formulas that all these running gurus use, I am supposed to be able to run at about an 8:00/mile pace during the marathon, which I feel is extremely aggressive. I have been aiming to run a marathon at 8:20-30/mile during Disney, but obviously that never happened... so since then, my goal paces have kinda been up in the air. So I decided that I would try to aim for the low 8's and see what happens. It would be good to have some solid confidence going into the Ft. Lauderdale race, so this is really the last time that I'm going to be putting in some quality training.
So off I went at about 6:30 am, and I started out the 1st mile at about 8:10... from there on I really didn't pay much attention to my watch and I just ran what I felt was comfortable...every 2 miles I stopped and drank Gatorade or water (just like I would during the actual race) and then I started to run again. The weather was absolutely perfect (low 60's, with a lot of fog and no sun). I looked over at my watch during the 4th mile and realized I was running around 7:50/mile. I was a little shocked, because it really felt effortless. As much as I like my Garmin watch (A.K.A. my personal trainer)I also am always trying to be careful to not become a slave to the data given by a watch. I feel as though our body's internal clock can let us know exactly what is going on...quicker than any fancy watch can...so anyways I decided to stay at what I felt was comfortable but still very manageable and just roll with it... well I continued on, drinking routinely at every 2 miles, and taking in my endurolyte tablets every hour... and it was just great!!! I noticed that there were a lot of runners out this morning... I guess people are getting ready to participate in one of the Gasparilla races next weekend. There was one lady in my neighborhood that I kept on passing as I went around the lake in my neighborhood, and I gave her a little thumbs up encouragement as she went around the lake for at least the 3rd time (I figured she must have put in about 6 miles so far... so it might have been needed). I remember looking at my watch and saw that I completed 9.2 miles and 1:12 elapsed... and I was like..wow... I'm booking it... but again, I felt good and just kept it going. When I got to the 12th mile, I didn't want to stop and drink, because I knew that I was in a "zone", but I stopped and stuck with my game plan... I drank for about 15 seconds, and finished out the last mile. Final time? 1:42:50. Better than my best race (Reggae Marathon, Dec. 07 - 1:43:30)and I wasn't giving it my all... so I'm just happy... kinda shocked really at how it all went down today. I'm just hoping that I didn't do too much with 2 weeks before the marathon.
So here is the Ivy Lake Long Run