Another Saturday run

Went out today on the usual Saturday morning run with the Inside track club. Brandy was there, along with a few others, and all of us planned to run ten miles. Some were tapering down while others were building up. Brandy and I are building up for the Santa to the Sea half marathon and are planning our assault on completing that run in under two hours. Yes, i have done a half in under two before but my goal is for both of us to finish it in under two hours. I think that we can do it by running together during the entire race, keeping a good pace throughout and adjusting a needed. I know that she can do it but she is not quite sure, so my job is to help her stop those thoughts enter her mind. So a-training we will go.

Today was a ten mile run, planned for an easy pace, about ten minutes per mile pace. Started off good and slow to warm up, going about 10:30. We picked it up a little bit in mile two but still a little more than ten minutes. Miles three to five were good and we got there in under 49 minutes. Stopped there to fuel up for the return journey and off we went on our merry ways. The return portion started off where we left off so we knew that it would be a negative split. Each mile got progressively faster, and we really noticed on mile 9 that we were going at a race pace. We actually did mile nine at under 9 minutes! We reminded ourselves to slow down, to think of a recovery pace for the last mile. This was good as it allowed me to complete the return journey without stopping. The return trip took under 48 minutes.

As if that was the only good thing to happen during the run, the others were waiting for us at the end. One group had finished about 8 minutes before and the other group finished about 5 minutes, so they decided to wait for us knowing we weren't that far behind. This made me feel good but even better was it made Brandy feel good. I think it helped her confidence tremendously knowing that the others weren't that far ahead of us. Granted everyone was doing an easy run, but so were we. Our easy runs are the medium speed runs from a couple of months ago. Ten minutes is now our recovery pace and we can consistently go a tad faster. I am not sure if I can maintain the pace we did today - I would have gone faster on my own and would end up walking. So the search for knowing my pace continues but if I can find a way to stay in Ventura on weekends, I will have my running partner who can rein me in while I pull her along at the same time. It's a delicate balance and it continues to be fun trying to find the equilibrium.

Keeping pace

Back on dry land once again after a few week cruise on board the mighty barge MATSS. Most of the days on board I would try to find at least fifteen minutes to walk around and get some exercise. Some days I would be able to get in thirty minutes of walking at a time and on a couple of occasions I walked an hour straight. Wasn't sure how many miles I did total, I just estimated that I kept a 3 mile/hour pace and that was that. Given the movement of the barge up and down, along with the many obstacles I had to avoid, that was a very conservative estimate. Maybe I went a little faster or slower, I think it all came out in the wash.

This led me to again try to figure out a way to run, be it during a training run or a race. Since my runs are usually defined by distance I know beforehand how long it should take me so I budget for that. Good rule of thumb has been ten minute miles - this still amazes me that I can do this. Not too long ago I was struggling to complete a few miles at a 12 minute pace and now I don't even worry about it.

But back to the topic: Usually when I run I start up at least one, if not two, apps on my iPhone. Nike+ and/or Runkeeper are on my iPhone and have kept me company on long runs. I don't use them to pace me during a run as I have been running without listening to the iPhone. I also keep track of my time on the chronograph function of my watch. If I am running "too fast" per mile I slow it down. I think this is important especially in the long and slow runs. They are supposed to be run at an easy pace to help with my recovery. Unfortunately this isn't the case, and I usually run at a faster pace.

My easy runs are supposed to be close to ten minute pace, according to my past results. If I am doing a speed workout then I need to pick up the pace. This is where my watch helps me out a bit, although there are times when I am feeling good with the pace I am running but deliberately slow myself down since I think I am going too fast. When I run with some in the running club and don't pay attention to my watch I know that I need to run a little slower than them since they are much faster than me. But I get caught up and run faster than I should, but it's not that bad. It does challenge me but I am not completely burned out at the end. Maybe I need to run some more on feel and not depend on my watch all the time. Time will tell ;)