Sweep4-2 said:
Since I kind of hijacked the cross country thread by mentioning my latest ill-advised and poorly thought out event, I thought I'd at least follow it up and mention that I'm realizing just how badly this 10-miler in a week is going to hurt.
Ran 8 miles tonight (at 8:35/mile) in cool, misty weather. Pace stayed +\- 5 seconds from average for each mile. At mile 6, I was feeling great. At mile 8, I wanted to lay in the wet grass and cry.
When I went out for my "cool run" at 6:30 tonight in Houston, it was actually 80 with an 89 heat index. As I write this at 10:10 p.m., the heat index is still 80. Sure, that's fine for a nice long run, but it will have a significant effect on pace. You were just going too fast, and you're not going to have time to recover if you don't chill a bit.
For reference, my PR for 5K is 22:50, but as soon as the weather gets cool, I'm going to go under 22. Tonight I ran a 5K fartlek, with a dozen or so microsurges of 10 - 20 seconds. The time was 25:09.. My Garmin may not agree, but I know that was a pretty darned good run. Subtract 14% for temp effect, and it's right about 21:30 for a 5K. I don't know how low I'll really get, but you have to respect the weather.
I did about 2 weeks this summer at 9000 feet. The altitude had a similar effect on pace, but once I got in a comfort zone, I could maintain heart rate without dropping pace. In Houston, no chance. So, since I've come back down to hell, I've started off long runs slowly and not increased pace until I'm completely comfortable at a given heart rate. I'm able to run a 10K with negative splits for every mile. The finish time isn't great, but I'm running comfortably at the top of zone 4 at the finish instead of praying for death and dropping pace.
TLDR...try starting at 9:00 or 9:15 and drop 0-5 seconds for each mile. I'll bet you can do the full 10 around 8:45, and be looking forward to your first half marathon at the same pace with just a little more training. And when the weather gets cold, you'll be ready to run the half in 8:15 or faster.
Future addict alert!!!!
94chem,
That, sir, was the greatest post in the history of TexAgs. I salute you. -- Dough