AN AWESOME NINE MILE RUN

My route for my sub 8:00/mile training run of nine miles; the last long run before my half next weekend.

I said my next post was going to be a preview of the Corvallis Half Marathon, but I will publish that on Thursday instead probably. For this post I would like to talk about a pretty awesome training run I had this last weekend.

After struggling with dehydration the weekend before, I was kind of dreading another "long run." However, since it was the weekend before my half marathon I was going to do a "mini taper" so the run would only be nine miles. That, coupled with overcast temperatures in the mid-50s (instead of 80 degrees), made for a really good run.

I set out with a goal to attack the run and almost hit "race pace." This wasn't going to be a leisurely long run, I was really going to push this thing to get myself ready for the half marathon the next weekend. The last couple of group runs I had been pushing the pace and found myself around 8:20/mile. I figured I could run this even faster than that since during those group runs I am still maintaining a conversation at times.

The course was a highly modified version of my normal 10k route to add an additional 2.8 miles. I definitely started out of the gate much faster than I normally do and tried to maintain that pace. It was still relatively comfortable though, honestly I was surprised at how good I was feeling.

When my phone read off my first mile time of 7:05 I thought it was too good to be true. Sure, I was running faster than normal, but I imagined myself doing eight minute miles, not seven. Still, that made me feel pretty confident and I even backed off the gas a little because I knew if I was running that fast I couldn't maintain it for nine miles.

Then my second mile time came in at 5:05. Wow a five minute mile. I rock! At this point I figured out my phone was having issues. I figured out the problem once I was done with the run (and I suspected this during the run). My data (3G) was not connecting at all. The GPS service was fine, but it didn't have the usual "pairing" with the data source. The accuracy with just the GPS is maybe accurate to within 50 meters and it updates your location less often. The accuracy with GPS and data is to within like 5 meters and it updates your location continuously.

My phone will sometimes refuse to connect with data after it has been on for many days in a row without restart or I enter a weird cell zone where I can get phone service but not data service. This is the case for my bowling leagues Friday nights, I can get phone service in that tin box but data is hard to come by. I didn't restart my phone or notice lack of data between the end of bowling league and the beginning of the run the next afternoon.

Needless to say, my times weren't accurate, and at times they were comical. I had a couple sub-six minute miles and overall the phone said I did about a mile more than I actually did. When I got home I traced my exact route (literally, zoomed in with the satellite and traced the sidewalks) it came in at 9.14 miles. I knew my time, that wasn't wrong, so I was able to calculate my average pace. 7:57!

Overall it was a great run. I could tell I was going fast and my body responded well. I was definitely tired and drained afterward but I ran nine miles at near race pace. It gave me a lot of confidence I can do another half marathon around the 7:50/mile pace of my PR. This was a pretty dang hilly course too, so Corvallis being flatter should help. I think I probably did the first five miles at 7:45 or so and the last four at 8:15ish. There are a couple decent hills in those last few miles.

Now a couple solid runs on Monday and Wednesday at group and then I will "taper" until the race on Sunday morning.