First Test

The first test of what will hopefully be a series of attempts to ascertain what type of training paces I will be trying to hit on training runs as I prepare for a Fall Marathon occurred today. Alas, it was on a treadmill, but nevertheless, at least it WAS...

The goal is to follow the Run Less Run Faster plan for setting up test training sessions and base these on the A goal of a 3:10 marathon finish. I figure that if I can manage a good number of test runs, of all three "Key Run" varieties, and then analyze the paces that I was able to accomplish over the course of these attempts it will allow me to better prepare a proper pacing strategy for training and racing.

As such, today was one such test. The plan called for a 9km run, split into 3km easy, 3km at Short Tempo pace, and 3km easy. Based on a 3:10 marathon finish the Short Tempo pace is 4:04/km. Easy pace is 5:04/km...

The first 3km was, as planned, easy. Given that I was on a treadmill the pace didn't vary all that much as the Garmin foot pod read out splits of 5:06, 5:01, 5:00. Then it was straight into the Short Tempo section so I pushed the treadmill up to what I thought would be the right setting, 9.1mph, only to find that the foot pod indicated that my actual pace was 3:57/km. Yikes! Dropped it to 9.0mph, but that was still too quick, so settled on 8.9mph. That lead to a first kilometre in 4:00.3, and then splits of 4:01.4, and 4:02.9. Mission accomplished! It wasn't easy, but it wasn't deadly either. Guess I could have paced it closer to the intended 4:04/km, but am still pleased with how close this was to that target.

Finished the run with 3km once more at the easy pace and it was all done. Nice to have managed to pass this test!