As the summer heats up, I find it hard to maintain a steady pace during longer runs. I think I'm probably getting dehydrated, because I sweat until I'm sopping wet and I drink cup after cup of water when I'm done. But I also think I'm just trying to maintain too fast a pace for the conditions. So yesterday I resolved not to run too fast, and just keep a steady, slow pace. Not 8:15, but 8:40, or even a 9:00 pace.
As I started off with the DART group I found myself in the lead group of runners. After chatting for a mile or so with Chris, who I hadn't seen in a while, I deliberately slowed down. Miles 1-3 were 8:39, 8:21, 8:47. Then I was steady, running with Chad and Todd for several miles: 8:46, 8:46, 8:55, 8:49. Around Mile 8, we hit the trails, and so our pace naturally slowed down: 9:00, 9:31, 9:51, 9:10, 10:05. At this point it was just me and Todd; Todd had run 6 miles before meeting up with me. We hug on for a 9:22, 9:59, and 9:45 finish. It wasn't pretty, but we never stooped to walking, and I felt much better than I had in recent weeks at the end of my long run.
Overall for the week I bumped up my mileage a bit, to 47.42, compared to 42.68, 35.47, and 40.99 in the previous weeks. I'd like to get my mileage even a bit higher in the coming weeks, into the 50s. Ultimately the plan is to peak at around 70 miles per week as I ramp up the training for Richmond.
Details of today's workout are below.
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