One Week Until Colfax
Next Sunday is my first half-marathon of the year - the Colfax Half Marathon. For various reasons, including my problems earlier in the year with plantar fasciitis, I’m feeling a bit undertrained - but it’s really too late now to do much about that!
This week, I’ve been in taper mode. I’m ending the week with a total mileage of a little over 18 miles, including 8 today.
My plan for today’s run was to try and get myself into a race mentality, so I decided to do an 8 mile progression run. Progression runs are a really good workout for getting you into the racing mindset, because they start out at a slower pace and get progressively faster. This helps get you into the habit of not starting out too fast and helps teach you how to finish strong. If you’d like to learn more about the whys and hows of progression runs, Ed Eyestone wrote a good article on the topic that was published this week on the online edition of Runner’s World.
My run today went just okay - overall, it was quite a bit slower than I would like to have gone. I started out at a fairly slow place for the first 2 miles, then increased my pace by 16 seconds/mile for the second two miles. I took a brief gel/water break before starting miles 5-6, and increased my pace again, this time by 36 seconds/mile. The last 2 miles were a bit of a struggle because I think I had increased my pace too aggressively during miles 5-6, but I managed to finish fairly strong, increasing my pace by about 23 seconds/mile.
The good news for this run was that I felt pretty good about my pacing. The bad news is that it really confirmed that I’m not nearly in the shape I need to be in to try for a PR next weekend. Sadly, I’m not even sure that I’ll be able to beat my slowest half marathon time ever, but at least between last weekend’s long run and today’s run, I’m confident that I’ll be able to run the distance.
Over the next couple of days, I’ll be thinking about my race strategy and what time I can realistically shoot for. Hope your training is going well and that you’re enjoying some glorious spring weather!
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May 11th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
I’m wondering what your PR is??? Are you willing to share that? I’m a slow cookie!
May 12th, 2008 at 6:56 am
go get ‘em kch, i’m cheering for ya!
May 12th, 2008 at 8:00 am
@Rachel - sure…1:49:19, which is a pace of about 8:21/mile. I feel like I’m well off that right now.
@Jacqueline Carly - Thanks so much!
May 12th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
I understand your reservation about the half but you’ll do great if you just remember to start out slow. Maybe you could have a goal of running negative splits.
Progression runs are the best. As a matter of fact, I just did a 7 mile progression run today.
Thanks for the great post. Keep writing!
Sandy
May 12th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
@Sandy - Thanks, I will. I’m usually pretty good at pacing - I manage to run negative splits in most races. Sometimes it makes me think I’m holding back too much!
May 13th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
[...] Sunday, I’ve been thinking off and on about my goals for the Colfax Half Marathon on Sunday. As I said, I know I’m not in the shape right now that I’d need to be in to run a PR since I had [...]