I don't know what got me to thinking about the fact that I think I've gotten into a bit of a slow running rut. My 5K two days ago clearly showed that I can still run relatively fast. Not quite as fast as I used to, but fast enough. If I could maintain a 7:37/mile pace on a hilly 5K, I wonder what pace I should be able to keep for a half marathon. A lot of my runs have been around 10 minute plus pace lately, of course with a lot of hills. Still, it was just three years ago that I was doing twenty mile runs at 9 minute pace. But even then, I could never translate those runs to an ironman run pace of anything faster than 11 minute per mile pace. I never have. Well, almost never. I've done a couple of ironman run at around 10:30 pace. Clearly, one reason is my bike fitness. If I'm not fit enough on the bike, my runs will be slower. I've been working on that. So, the question is, if I can maintain my legs after a long bike, what type of run am I capable of? My 5K has inspired me, as well as the fact that I ended up doing 15 miles on Thursday and my legs felt fine the next day.
The best part of all of this is today's bike. I rode my bike for 5 hours and 15 minutes, pretty much all of the ride at ironman effort, or even a little harder. My legs felt fine, and I really had little drop off in energy and effort from start to finish. I paced myself well, and I took in 300 cal an hour, to make sure that tomorrows run is also ok. I did seven loops in my neighborhood, and during the sixth loop I was feeling tired and my legs felt like they might be done. And then a guy on a road bike passed me going up my last hill. I sped up a bit, and talked to him the entire way up. Hmmm, my legs still had energy. I had actually been thinking of ending my ride after the sixth loop, but the fact that I still had the legs to ride up the last hill inspired me to do one more loop. I actually did that loop on my old tri bike, as it has a power meter. I'm not sure if I went a little harder or not not he last loop, but it turned out to be my fastest and my power was exactly where I'd love it to be for an ironman. An hour later I got a massage and two hours later, my legs felt like I hadn't even ridden.
Which brings me back to the mind games of running faster. I've been so focused on running easy, that I think I've gotten a bit lazy. The 5K has inspired me to start thinking that I can run faster again. First, I have Santa Rosa in 3 weeks. What pace can I keep for a flat half marathon at the end of a half ironman? Certainly, 9 minute per mile pace should be reasonable. But how much faster can I go? How much can I override my own doubts and just run faster? My legs have been ok lately. Ultimately, how fast can I run at Kona? Perhaps that's my ultimate goal for the race I've been looking forward to for so many years!
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