GT350H
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Best run of the year - and it almost didn't happen
Was invited to join the Athens group for another 10 miler at 5:45 AM Sunday. Set my alarm and got up at 4AM - it was pouring rain. It was so bad that my dog didn't even want to go out - I had to make her and stand outside and watch over her while she "did her thing." I seriously contemplated going back to bed and waiting to see if the weather cleared up. But then I thought - "Hey, you're not gonna melt. You've missed 12 weeks of running, you should be finding excuses TO run, not finding excuses NOT to run." So I headed off to Athens on that note.
Ten hardy souls met at the Athens Rec Center, including Madelyn Patton and Coach Barry Pugh who set the early pace along with myself and Eric Patterson. An early pebble in my shoe made me do some speedwork to catch up with the lead pack after a quick pitstop. At about the halfway point Madelyn dropped off to go back and run with her husband, leaving me, Eric and Barry at the front. Eric and I kept accusing each other of pushing the pace which started in the low 8s and eventually made it down into the high 6s. Eric, being the now seasoned trainer that he is, went out of his way to find some extra hills to run up in the last two miles. I will get the overall splits from him later and post, but I'm sure the overall average was close to the 7s. Not quite tempo pace, but definitely challenging considering my current level of fitness. Thanks Eric! (and Madelyn and Barry) ;)
Here were the 9 mile splits I got from Eric:
8:46
8:22
8:02
8:17
8:02
8:14
7:46
7:35
7:14
6:10 (last 0.78 miles)
The last mile probably would have been sub 7:00 if I hadn't slowed down - Eric was willing, but I wasn't...
Ten hardy souls met at the Athens Rec Center, including Madelyn Patton and Coach Barry Pugh who set the early pace along with myself and Eric Patterson. An early pebble in my shoe made me do some speedwork to catch up with the lead pack after a quick pitstop. At about the halfway point Madelyn dropped off to go back and run with her husband, leaving me, Eric and Barry at the front. Eric and I kept accusing each other of pushing the pace which started in the low 8s and eventually made it down into the high 6s. Eric, being the now seasoned trainer that he is, went out of his way to find some extra hills to run up in the last two miles. I will get the overall splits from him later and post, but I'm sure the overall average was close to the 7s. Not quite tempo pace, but definitely challenging considering my current level of fitness. Thanks Eric! (and Madelyn and Barry) ;)
Here were the 9 mile splits I got from Eric:
8:46
8:22
8:02
8:17
8:02
8:14
7:46
7:35
7:14
6:10 (last 0.78 miles)
The last mile probably would have been sub 7:00 if I hadn't slowed down - Eric was willing, but I wasn't...
posted by mgreene at 10:39 AM
3 Comments:
Those last miles were seriously fun. I mean I was smiling. NICE JOB! Glad you made it! What rain? :)
That is really cool to have people to do all that with.
Yes it is - there's no way I would have pushed myself as hard without Eric there. Rae - you should once again let your TeamVoice members know about Eric and how far he's come in only 1 year - from no running to doing a 50K trail run and marathon and losing 70 pounds in the process. It all comes down to desire and the mental fortitude to put in the miles and not make excuses. I'm glad to see you're trying new things (swimming) which can only help in your overall conditioning.
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