I ran 2.5 miles barefoot at the beginning of the run, followed by running 7.5 miles with shoes. Total of 10 miles. I felt tired early on in the run so I just hung out around 8:00 pace for most of the run after opening about a minute slower than 8:00 pace for the first 2.5 miles. I decided to run the last mile fast as the beginning of the speed work I will need to do in order to accustom myself to running fast again. I figured that if I add 1 mile hard per week to the end of my Saturday run I can slowly get used to running hard while already fatigued (ie 1 mile today, 2 miles next Saturday, etc.). I ended up with a 5:47 for the last mile. Total time of 1:18:55 for 10 miles. I was not too happy with the time on the last mile considering the effort, but on thinking over things I realized that I couldn't be too hard on myself for a number of reasons. I was running into a headwind, it was warm (between 80 and 90), the mile is slow (5 super sharp turns and hilly), and I started off more slowly easing into things. I had been expecting a faster time in part because I finished fairly hard, forgetting that I started off more slowly. This result did convince me that I need to hold off on increasing the mileage of my Saturday long run until I get more comfortable where I am at. Even as I increase the distance that I run hard every Saturday I will still keep the total distance to 10 miles for a while longer. |