Wednesday 5 May 2010: Pacing is difficult

Mileage: 13.5 Miles

AM: 3.75 miles PM: 9.75 miles

My morning run to work was a nice losener after last night's hard track session. It was also lovely and warm and for the first time in ages I had to take my gloves off mid run. Even though the skies were grey and the pavement was still drying from a recent shower I started to hope that, just maybe, Spring is here at last. I am sure tomorrow it will be cold, wet and windy and I'll be certain that winter is back!

My evening run was broken into two parts, my run home and a fast 6mile run with Dan. Dan is running the Edinburgh Marathon in three weeks and is aiming to run a sub 3hour time. In order to do that he needs to be able to run all 26.2 miles at about 6 minutes and 50seconds per mile. So on my run home I agreed to meet him to do a 6 mile run and to run each mile at Dan's marathon pace. We met at Rodney Street and decided to do a little loop of the cycle network, which we have been using in recent weeks. It's a good pavement and there's no traffic (apart from bikes and people!). 

I have to admit I thought it would be fairly easy to zip round at 6.50 pace, however, it turns out that I (and Dan) am not too great at getting pacing right. We set off on the first mile and despite trying to be consistent and controlled, looking at watches and checking pace, we went too fast finishing the mile in 6.26. I'd already run 3 miles by the time I'd met Dan so I couldn't use the excuse that I was just starting my run with fresh legs eager to get going. We slowed down and tried to break each mile into half miles to get our pace right. It worked to an extent, mile two was 6.39 then three was 6.48 and four was also 6.48, we then picked up the pace slightly to 6.41 before getting back down to 6.46 to finish off. Not ideal, but we were a bit better over the last 4 miles. It was nice been able to run comfortably faster than intended, but that was not the point.

There are quite a few runners at the club that can set themselves a pace and run to it without the aid of a watch, I clearly can't do that, even with a watch! I used to train with Graham Beal in the Meadows on a Tuesday night and we would do 1.5 mile and 2 mile reps and he is a great example of perfect pacing. He would look at me, ask what pace we were meant to be doing and then off we'd go. I could just sit on his shoulder and after every rep we would look at the clock and within a second or two it would be where we should be. I was always very impressed. I think I let natural instinct take over too much and several times today I was fighting with myself to go slower. Over 6 miles, at that pace isn't too much of a problem for me , but being able to pace yourself properly over 26.2 miles is crucial in order to get a time that your training deserves. The fact that in all bar one of the marathons I have raced in I have run a much faster first half than second and have often struggled in those last 6 miles is testament to my inability to pace properly.

The ability to run slower even though you know you can go faster, so that you can be consistent and save something for the end is vital in any race but for marathons it is especially true. I have managed to get better at this over the years, but this year on the road I have yet to run a negative split in any race. I am sure Alex and Garry (my coaches) would say that tells its own story. The fact that I know this and it still happens tells another. I guess years of experience can help, that's certainly what Graham Beal told me was his secret. Training can also help and I have noticed that I am better at running consistent and even splits in interval training when that has been required. Part of me knows that my own enthusiasm is slightly to blame, particularly in races. I want to run fast and finish as high up as possible and that somehow translates into "run as fast as I can for as long as I can".

At least I know I need to get better at it. 

Already looking forward to training tomorrow night at the Meadows.