Hills

Once you think you've got the "pacing" thing down, try a few hills to get a reality check. The training group to which I have been assigned--Marathon Charity Partners--did the Riley's Rumble Half Marathon on Sunday. The course starts near the Potomac at Seneca Creek, MD, then climbs the foot hills for six and half miles inland, the returns on the same course. The rolling course had few flat spots and played havoc with someone like me who is working to keep a consistent pace. My miles splits ranged from 8:30 down to 7:13. That kind of variation is not good for optimum efficiency. The way to achieve your best time is to run as evenly as you can from start to finish.

The smart thing to do on a variant course like this is throw out the mile markers and focus on two splits: first half and second half. For that I did quite well. 50:40 going out, 50:41 coming back for 1:41:21 total. That's a 7:45 average. I want to run 7:30s in October, so I need to be a little faster. But since its only July, I'll take it for now.