amkelley wrote:
Continuing my series of stupid running tricks, today I tried to race a half-marathon seven days after my ugly marathon finish.
So, AM and CM and anyone else who's done lots of halfs, Saturday will be my first. And I'm starting to realize what a run in the dark it's going to be. I have no idea what 13.1 miles of intense running feels like and I'd be grateful for any advice.
Currently I average 50-52 mpw and am putting in longer long runs than ever, ending some of them with 1-2 miles at T pace to see how that feels. Recoveries have tracked my volume increases: a little stiff early on, then fine.
Yesterday I did about 5 miles of a 44-mile relay with some friends. Did it at this "relaxed 10K" I've been yakking about, supposedly 95% of 10K pace, 6:30 or so. With only a couple of moderate rises on the highway to deal with, I eventually got in the zone and finished at 6:29 pace, as fast as I did on the indoor track 2 weeks ago. This morning I'm 98% recovered, so I'm thinking OK, that extrapolates to a 37-minute 10K and an 82-minute half, allegedly ...
But then I asked myself, how long could I really maintain that pace? Am I truly capable of running 13 miles at 6:15 pace? I'm going to start at 6:25-6:30 for the first 3 miles before accelerating, just to see how I feel. I will say that at the end of my relay leg I felt like running another relay leg. I was juuust getting comfortable with 3/3 breathing, the leg turnover, chug chug chug.
Words of wisdom would be appreciated, if nothing else to stop me from overthinking this.