I knew well in advance that we weren't going to have our strongest possible team out, but the stakes turned out to even lower than I had anticipated as we were unable to muster a complete team. I was sent out on the 4th leg and had the modest goal of improving on last year's time, which wasn't going to be difficult as long as I didn't take a wrong turn. Didn't bother with more than a few strides as a warm-up. The mile markers helpfully showed the number of miles to go, so I calculated a worst-case scenario at each marker by estimating that if I turned out to have set out much too fast and blew up, I could still manage 6-minute miles.
At 5 miles to go I was confident of finishing inside 35 minutes, and with 4 to go it was looking good for sub-34, although it was around then that I felt like I was struggling slightly as I reached what was probably the highest point on the undulating course. At 3 miles to go, a comfortably sub-34 finish was virtually guaranteed and I felt like there was still plenty in the tank. What with making up the odd place I managed to miss the next mile marker, but with 1 mile left I saw that even sub-33 was a distinct possibility, as I chased down runners from VPCoG and Bellahouston Harriers, although I didn't quite manage to catch the latter. My finishing time for the 5.85 miles was 32:19, easily surpassing my long-leg best from 2003 of 34:04, although I may have been carrying an injury then. Average pace was 5:31/mile. Jogged a 1K warm-down afterwards.
Later on I ran an easy loop of Shakespeare Street and Napiershall Street. 3.37 miles in 25:56, average pace 7:42/mile, HR 142.
Pace splits (ave. HR): 8:02 (135), 7:35 (143), 7:28 (145), 7:41 (148)
HR zones: 2.0%, 24.7%, 73.3%, 0%, 0%
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment