Pace

I was able to run four times in the past nine days. I feel pretty good about that. I'm getting stronger, but at the same time the nagging achilles and foot pain in my right foot keep me in check. Last week, my left achilles started hurting. The pain was sharp enough that one day I stopped a run short. Overall, though, I continue to make progress.

Just recently on this blog I wrote that I wasn't worried about pace, but as I feel stronger and notice improvements, I've been measuring pace. One week ago I ran five miles in 55 minutes. That's more than 10.5 minutes per mile. I remember running laps in high school and I believe that was my pace. I don't want to run 10 minute miles. I want to run faster.

When I went out Thursday for another five miles, I had my eye on bettering 10:35. I knocked 15 seconds of my first half mile and was below 9:30 at the mile mark. But at about a mile and a half my left achilles lit up with some sharp pain that I tried to suppress by adjusting my stride. It worked for a while, but I had to stop after just three miles. I kept my pace under 10 minutes, but I was disappointed that I didn't finish the entire distance I had intended to run. I iced down and took a couple days off.

On Sunday I ran in the Acumen Race for a Cause 8K in Alexandria with some of my Team Challenge teammates.This race felt more official than the Four Seasons 5K I ran last month. I got my first racing bib (#1391) and timing chip and we ran on some major roads instead of a trail. I'm not knocking the Four Seasons race. As a matter of fact, I liked it and hope to run it again. I'm just emphasizing that this event felt different.

The start was wide open, no bottle neck to worry about, but still slow as there were almost 700 runners lined up to start. I listened to some last minute advice from one of the coaches who told us not to expend a lot of energy at the start weaving in and out of traffic. I didn't. I hung back and waited for the traffic to thin out. For the first mile I may have passed a few people, but more passed me. I was okay with that in general, but was a bit disappointed that it had taken me 10:37 to get there. I looked around for a rabbit to follow and focused on a woman that was just passing me. I stayed behind her, pushing my own pace, until about the halfway point.

At the halfway point, which was at the bottom of a long hill (follow this link to see the race course), I picked up my pace considerably and left my rabbit behind. As I started running up the hill I was passing everybody. Only a handful of people passed me from there to the end. I went from dog to rabbit when I felt someone pull in behind me at the time I kicked up the pace at the turn around. Fortunately, the sun was behind us so whenever I saw her pony tail shadow sneak up to my heels, I would speed up. It turned out I had a rabbit behind me after all.

I've discovered I like running up hill. It's a bit easier on the legs (impact-wise) and it's a great challenge. I kept up my pace up the long hill and beyond. As the mile markers passed -- 3 then 4 -- I realized I was on a personal record pace and began to fear I'd sped up way too early. My breathing was beginning to get shallower and my legs were starting to fatigue. I didn't slow down at the end, but I didn't have the reserve of energy that I had hoped to have for a sprint to the finish.

However, I finished in 45:19, which translates to a 9:08 minutes per mile pace! That shocked me. I had no idea I was running that fast (a relative measure). I've noticed in the past that I haven't been able to shave off very much time when running on my own even when I practice speed intervals. My rabbits in this race must have made a difference.

Check out the race results. Scroll past the 382 female finishers to the list of male finishers and keep on scrolling to 190. That's me.

The race by the numbers:
I finished 298 out of 683 runners; 190 out of 301 men; and 25 out of 38 in my age group.

I'm proud of those results, but more proud of my mile by mile pace.

mile 1: 10:37
mile 2:   9:11
mile 3:   8:42
mile 4:   8:53
mile 5:   7:56

The last mile is really only .98 miles, but even if I had run the extra 2 hundredths of mile more, it would have been my fastest mile. I'm very pleased.

Two days later I ran 4.2 miles at a 9:28 pace. It's good to feel and see improvement.

Tuesday, October 11th
running time in minutes: 55:01
total distance: 5.2 miles
mile pace: 10:35

Thursday, October 14th
running time in minutes: 30:09
total distance: 3.1 miles
mile pace: 9:40

Sunday, October 16th  - Acumen Race for a Cause
running time in minutes: 45:19
total distance: 4.98 miles
mile pace: 9:08

Tuesday, October 18th
running time in minutes: 39:24
total distance: 4.2 miles
mile pace: 9:28