I had two choices for running my 8 mile goal pace run. I could go to the nice dry, warm gym and run on the treadmill, or go to Lunken and run in the pouring rain. Hmmmm...let's see driving rain or treadmill. Which will it be? Okay, so it was 52 degrees and raining. I guess I should have mentioned that. There was no doubt that I was going outside short of a snow storm. I dressed pretty light in shorts, an underarmor shirt and short sleeve shirt over top. I've learned from previous outings in the rain that layering up does no good. You just get soaked and then end up dragging 15 lbs. of soaked clothes chafing you all the way. More on chafing later.
The Lunken Loop is a nice flat 5 miles with one short hill. It's a perfect change after a day of hills and weight lifting. My legs were already feeling so sore all day, and I was seriously wondering if I would be able to hold my goal pace over the 8 miles. I just kept in mind that this is part of my training, and this is probably what it will feel like over the last part of the marathon as my legs and hips stiffen up from the pounding miles. The good news is that despite the stiffness and the pouring rain the run went very well, and I managed to exceed my 7:30 goal pace that I was aiming for. I did a mile by mile breakdown:
mile 1: 7:21
mile 2: 7:26
mile 3: 7:16
mile 4: 7:02
mile 5: 7:05
mile 6: 7:25
mile 7: 7:21
mile 8: 7:12
No comments:
Post a Comment