Slow Down, Sister!

Last night we had a "time trial".

The object was to find out how we should pace ourselves for our long, slow distance runs. We divided into event again (so I was running with the SF marathoners). Beginners did one loop of the Reservoir, Intermediates did 2 loops and Advanced did 3 loops. We were told that each loop was about 1.5 miles. (Turns out it is actually 1.58 miles, but who's counting :). The coaches were going to run the first loop with us and then call out times for any subsequent loops. The object was not to run fast, but to run at our comfortable long distance pace. We should be able to talk to our neighbor easily and without much effort (this was, in fact, encouraged).

Since the Reservoir loop gets pretty crowded, we also broke into approximate pace groups. I went with Coach Pete who was running with the 9:00 milers.

The first loop felt great. I was talking to the coach almost the entire time. He asked me if it felt like a 9:00 mile because he had already run this morning and felt like his pacing was off. I said it did, but the fact is, I think I am adjusting to this new pace as well. At the 1 mile marker we were at 8:40. Whoops.

When he stopped at the first loop I realized that the rest of our group had dropped back significantly. I was running by myself, which made me crazy, because I was afraid my pacing would fall off.

But I shouldn't have worried. Soon, this other girl from our group caught up with me and we ran the next loop together. I was chatting with her about all of her marathons (this is her 9th) including her 2x running Boston. (Yes, Boston.) And what do you know? I found myself speeding up. Like, a lot. But I didn't realize it until we got to the end of the loop and I couldn't talk as easily. (Yay for the talk test.)

Pete called out a 27:06, which I thought was for 3 miles flat, and I was like, "NO WAY." Because if I took out the first mile at 8:40, and felt like I sped up on the next two miles I didn't think that was possible. (Turns out if you figure it out for 3.16 miles it is more like a 8:34 pace, which was much closer to my head calculations.)

I let Speedy Speedster go ahead of me for the next lap and ran by myself again in a much more comfortable "me" pace.

I have no idea what I netted out at because Pete wasn't there when I got back (turns out that only me and Boston Girl did the three loops). Everyone else was stretching on the dirt.

It would have been nice to know what pace I had for that last lap, but I am pretty sure that it was somewhere in the neighborhood of an 8:50 mile.

We'll see what this means for my long slow runs. I just have to remember that "talk test".