So, it's time to get down to business. No more messing around, skipping runs (yes, I skipped a tempo run this week), and going slower just because it's easier. I officially have less than a month to get trained for Chicago. I was telling myself all of these things as I headed out for my 12 miler yesterday.
I pushed myself and actually covered a whole extra mile! Even though my left shin's been a little sore lately, I pushed it out there and tried to get to marathon pace. This is something I should have been doing earlier in training (my program calls for a marathon pace run every other week). My music died early on, but I preferred just focusing my mind anyway. A really good distraction at the end was when I pretended I was at 3:14 in Chicago and that I could see the finish line. It helped me to sprint and get a 7:00 mile at the end of my run. I felt strong at the finish.
1 8:25
2 7:57
3 7:57
4 7:58
5 7:37
6 7:33
7 7:30
8 7:44
9 7:44
10 7:25
11 7:27
12 7:09
13 7:00
.01 5:48
Overall pace 7:39
Notice that I finally hit pace at mile 10 (actually 2 seconds faster than pace). This is opposite from my approach to marathons, when I start fast (under my pace) and then slow down. Also, mile 11 was exactly on pace--a 7:27. It felt nice and not hard to maintain once I got there.
Today was a rest day and a day to reflect on 9-11. I hope to do a post later this week about my memories from that day.
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