Ran 13.75 miles in 1:38:23. The assignment today was to run 13 miles in 1:33:00. I'll admit that I had my doubts about doing this. I have never run 13 miles that fast before. My previous best time (on a treadmill)was a little over 1:36 and that was 4 years ago. I just had not attempted to run that distance fast. I have run that distance many times in the past 4 years, but it is usually over 1:40 and I'm not trying to set any PRs. I had decided before I started that I would run the full half-marathon distance since it is only one-tenth of a mile more. I managed to run the 13 miles in 1:32:13 and ran the 13.1 in 1:33:00.
The way I accomplished this was by not running it at the same speed the entire distance. I knew psychologically that I would not be able to hold to that. So, for the first 25 minutes I ran at 8.1 mph (7:24 min mile) then the next 25 minutes at 8.5 mph (7:03 min mile), then the next 10 minutes at 8.6 mph (6:58 min mile). That took me to the hour mark. I then upped it to 8.7 mph (6:54 min mile) for the next 20 minutes, then I increased it to 8.8 mph (6:48 min mile) and 8.9 (6:44 min mile) after 5 minutes running at each and finished the last few minutes at 9.0 mph (6:39 min mile).
The reason I did this was all psychological. You have to know yourself as a runner, and I know the psychological game is stronger with me than it usually is with other folks. Since this was a hard week already, I knew my mind would be working against me (plus going into it with that thought practically guarantees it!). When I started the run I really did not know if I could do it in that time. The amount of mileage would be no problem, but the time? So I figured that if I felt good running at the lower speeds for an hour then that confidence would get me to 13 in that time frame. My plan worked. I felt quite good after that hour, even better than expected. However, I could also tell that fatigue was building. But as you can see I was very successful. The last 10 minutes was pretty tough and I nearly backed off once (or twice). So in the end I was able to use my own mind's little tricks and play my own trick. Knowing yourself can help you get through runs like these.
A total of 48 miles for the week.
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