When I see the temperature around 40 degrees, the thought of running outside always makes me shiver. Then I get out there, and remember that 40 degrees is freaking ideal for running. Case in point: last night. I think it’s the first truly “cold” weather run that I’ve done all year.
4.01 miles – 40:07 – 10:00/mile
Splits: 10:20, 10:13, 10:01, 9:33
I started out not paying attention to pace, and just running comfortably. As I passed through mile 1, I realized that I was moving along at a pretty good clip and not feeling very tired. I chalked it up to going faster because I needed to warm up! (I wore my hat and gloves and long sleeve shirt; it was a little too much clothing, but I kept it all on anyway.) So I kept going. I passed through mile 2 pretty comfortably as well, breathing hard but not so hard that I couldn’t have had a short conversation. By the time I’d reached mile 3, the average pace reading on my Garmin, which had started out around 10:20, had fallen to 10:10. When I noticed at 3.5 that it was 10:08, I thought “heck with it, let’s see if I can average an even 10!” So I took off for the last half mile, and made it.
It felt good. I hadn’t planned to run fast, and the odd part is that the 10:00 average didn’t feel completely horrible — only the last half mile when I was closer to 9:00 pace! I was in a good mood for the rest of the night. And I’m still in a good mood today, because it’s my day off! No running, no swimming, no biking, just Friday night and dinner and fun.
In response to my little running pace math problem yesterday, both Nick and Jose both solved it independently for me. Nick even left work late because he spent 20 minutes writing a Matlab script! It comes down to the fact that minutes per mile = 60 / mph. It’s not a linear relationship. I probably could have figured that out myself, but it was way more fun to have someone else obsess about it. 🙂