Workout: 4 Miles

Time: 30:58

Splits: 8:04, 7:35, 7:28, 7:50

After a relaxing night off at my parents house last night, I decided that I’d put in a quality 4 miles tonight.  It had been a while since I ran at North Brunswick park, but I wanted a flat, non-paved course so I took a drive over there.  I started out at a good pace, but quickly stopped when my Garmin beeped at me.  I still had the pace alert on…and I didn’t want to be warned today.  I just wanted to run at what felt like a comfortably moderate/hard pace, without letting my Garmin dictate my pace.  So I turned it off and got back to running.  First mile went well, so I decided to pick it up for the second mile.  Pushed the pace a little, but not to the point of it being uncomfortable.  Mile 3 I thought I might back off some, but I was feeling good so I let my legs go with it…and ended up with another negative split.  Not too bad.  The final mile I forced myself to slow down some, but picked it up the last 0.2 to around a 6:30 pace…what I would call comfortably hard.  Definitely not sprinting…controlled hard running.  No wheezing for breath, no pain, but glad to be done once my watched beeped for mile 4.

All in all it was a very good, very productive run.  It showed me that my speed is where I want it to be, and that I can maintain it for more than a few miles.  My goal for ING Hartford is 1:44:00, or around a 7:56 pace.  Today I averaged around 7:45, which would bring me to 1:41:36.  I definitely feel as though my last mile would have been a little better had I taken some fluids during the run.  So if I can comfortably, on a training run, handle a 7:45 pace, I don’t see why I can’t hope for a sub 1:40, or around a 7:37 pace.  Guess it all depends on race day conditions and proper pacing…which, thanks to my Garmin, should work out well.  A fellow Team in Training runner ran 1:37:37 (7:27 pace) at Virginia Beach…dare I be that hopeful?  Perhaps that will be my ultimate goal…

Goal 1: Finish

Goal 2: Finish Under 2 hours

Goal 3: PR (under 1:50)

Goal 4: Beat my friend Colleen’s time (under 1:44)

Goal 5: Finish under 1:40

Goal 6: Finish under 1:37:37

We’ll see how it goes.  Well, until the next one…run on friends!