Saturday run

I am laughing with pleasure post-run but really also with self-reproach, it was the dreaded day when it was me and C. and S. and they are just fast runners and we did not adhere to pace guidelines...

(I would think that the slowest end of their long run pace overlaps with the fastest end of mine, but of course it is just hard anyway to hold oneself to these slow paces. My race isn't till Sunday next weekend, so I think it really is fine, and frankly if you find people you like running with it's probably worth a bit of tradeoff--assuming nothing catastrophic--on race performance for good training companionship. But I am making a stern note for myself that when I'm training for the marathon next year I will need to really make a choice on this, and that insofar as my race time really matters to me I will need to find some slower folks to do the long runs with, or else just ruthlessly enforce my will on these ones! Which is mildly distasteful to me, but obviously possible--only I cannot have a hodgepodge strategy that diverts me off course!)

(Goodness, I am tempted to find a low-key late spring marathon to do--only really I think I should wait till the fall, for injury-prevention and speed-building reasons it makes a ton of sense to keep concentrating on half-marathons and shorter races instead and I also will need the time for triathlon training. But it is certainly a tempting thought...)

The pace readings were occasionally a bit dodgy--S. has just got a Pod also and I wondered whether it was some kind of interference, but perhaps the main thing is to replace the battery...--but I think the distance and time are right, so I am kind of actually smitten with guilt looking at the numbers now, only it was so enjoyable that it really was worth departing from guidelines! There was one bit just near the end, say around 9.6 miles, where we were going very steadily and strongly up Harlem Hill and as we leveled out afterwards I seriously felt like I was floating along, it was most (what shall I say?) blissful...

10.55 miles, 1:35:16 run time, 9:05 average pace, 150 average HR

Mile splits: 9:43, 9:08, 9:20, 8:48, 8:39, 8:42, 9:32 [that was me trying to be resolute! it did not stick...], 8:32, 8:17, 9:06 (plus another half-mile around the same pace)