Pacing for 10K

I finally had a lie-in and am having a lazy morning, thank goodness...

Thoughts on pacing for the 10K next Sunday. Off my last half-marathon time, the McMillan calculator predicts 51:20/8:15 pace.

Factors suggesting I should go slower (say 8:25-8:30):

1. The course is significantly hillier.

2. I haven't been doing any speedwork; really I've just been particularly thinking about half-marathon distance, and my strength is more endurance than speed.

(Hmmm, maybe this is just wishful, who knows really? It might be rather than I enjoy working on endurance more than on speed, but that it is pure fantasy that it will suit me better to push hard on getting a marathon pace that's not a huge amount slower than my half-marathon pace rather than working on speed for these four- and five-mile races that seem to me not very interesting in terms of the mental challenge. Anyway those McMillan paces in my admittedly extremely limited experience seem very consistent--I do not have a turn of speed on very short runs, I was always the last person in every sprint I ever had to do as a kid, but really it is just a fact of human physiology that there will be considerable consistency for many or even most people across a wide range of distances.)

Factors suggesting this is appropriate:

1. I really felt like I could have gone faster in Philadelphia, maybe 15 seconds/mile faster, only I didn't want to blow what was clearly going to be a good PR and an excellent and very enjoyable run.

2. Why not try it?!?

I am not particularly invested in a time goal on this one--I did a 10K in May at 54:10/8:44 pace (more or less same course, only I cannot remember whether it was in the same direction round the loop or not), really I should be able to beat that barring unforeseen calamity, might just be interesting to see how fast I can go.

Run steady and hard for first four miles, then give it my all for the last two--I feel like I've been able to get pretty close to eight-minute miles for the last two at the end of a half-marathon, really I should be able to do it at the end for this one also.

I think my body can handle a race in which my HR goes into the 170s early on and stays there, so long as it's over in not much more than 50 minutes--it was that high for pretty much the whole of the wretchedly hot and humid half in October, certainly I kind of felt like I was going to die and had to take some walk breaks on hills in the last five miles or so, and no reason I shouldn't hold 170-173 or something like that and then just go all out for last couple miles...

In any case I really will be running on effort rather than on time very self-consciously speaking, the pod in-the-moment pace measurements are not so useful on a hilly course and the terrain is uneven enough that mile splits are not particularly useful either, not without getting more precise than I really want to be...

Oh, this is good, now I really am looking forward to it!

I must try and run for at least fifty minutes today, though it's snowing quite a bit and in the 20s so this is slightly thwarting. I will run Tuesday evening in the park (probably only 6, I think). I've got an unpleasantly tight schedule Thursday, so I think I'll just do a nice slow one Friday morning first thing instead, and count on cross-training to get me through the week otherwise.

I will wait another couple weeks before making my next chunk of training schedule, got to finish the business of the semester and deal with crazy schedule stuff in December, but I did just also register for the first of the Grand Prix half-marathon series for 2008--held over the course of the year, one in each of New York's five boroughs. I must prepare to be thwarted if some work trip takes me out of town for one of them, but really I am hoping I can do them all, it is a fun project...