Marathon Pace

The weather has been absolutely beautiful the last few days. It would have been even better if I would not have to spend all that time in the office, but it's still nice to enjoy some sunshine during lunch hour, and, of course, to run in the beautiful morning air.

I took it easy on Wednesday, to recover the legs from Tuesday's tempo run. It wasn't quite as slow as my last recovery effort on Monday, but I felt very relaxed all the same. Today, in contrast, was a tough workout. I had felt quite apprehensive before going out; I'm not quite sure why. Sure, 17 miles, with 15 at MP, is a tough workout, but I was always confident I'd be able to run it. The workout served two purposes; one, I would get the body used to running at that pace, and second, maybe more important, I would get some feedback if I would really be able to pull off that pace on race day.

I started with 2 easy miles, but a few doubts did creep in. 8:00 pace did feel tougher than it should initially (but then again, I wasn't warmed up yet), and 7:30 on a downhill segment during the second mile wasn't that easy either. But once I reach the 2-mile point I accelerated, and soon got into the swing of things. The plan was to run at 7:10-7:15 pace and hope that it would feel ok. The first 5 miles went by without problems. The roads in Cromane aren't entirely flat, but all the ups and downs are very gentle. After mile 7 or 8 the going got tougher, and the same effort that used to yield 7:12 for the previous miles resulted in 7:25. I had dark clouds forming in my mind, and thought about chucking it in and going home, but eventually kept at it. The rough patch lasted until about mile 11 or 12, when I started to feel better again. Interestingly, I had a rough patch at exactly the same miles during the Loch Ness marathon. Back then I attributed my recovery to a gel I had taken, but today I just recovered without aid. I felt really good for the next few miles, and the same effort started to give me 6:50 miles. At that point I started to have dangerous thoughts. Would I be able to pull off that pace in the marathon? That would be unlikely, because a 1:28 half marathon runner is unlikely to break 3:00 in the marathon, and when I hit another rough patch around mile 15, this was basically confirmed. I felt rough enough to run a downhill segment slower than when I had come the other way just a mile earlier, but I recovered towards the end (the finish was calling), and I ended the run still feeling good, and a look at the Garmin told me that I had hit 7:10 pace exactly, which pleased me no end.

I'm pretty sure I can pull off the same again in Cork. It's easy to say that now, but it didn't feel particularly hard. The HR was always in the 150s (apart from the odd climb), and even though I've learned in Bantry that you have to add a few seconds per mile from your Garmin pace to get your “official distance” pace, I think that the race day adrenaline will provide sufficient boost to make up for that. Of course there is always the possibility that in Cork I'll ruefully think back to today's workout and how manageable 7:10 pace had felt, but let's not be pessimistic.

I'm now really looking forward to the marathon. I'm quite confident I'll be able to beat 3:10, but of course I said that before Loch Ness, and it didn't happen then. There will be another interval workout over the weekend, and then I'll call it a taper.

14 May

8 miles, 1:12:04, 9:00 pace, HR 129

15 May

17 miles, 2:03:36, 7:16 pace, HR 153
incl. 15 miles @ 7:10