Goal Pace Run

Last night I did my first goal pace run, which is just what it sounds like:  you run at the pace you're planning to run the race you're preparing for.  In order to finish my half-marathon in 2:15:00, I need to run at 5.8 mph or 10:20 min/mi.  So last night I ran 7.0 mi at that pace, which led me to finish in 1:12:26.  Happily enough, this felt like a pretty good pace that I could've done for longer.  Which is good!

I'm having a bit of a struggle with the thought of running my longer runs at a slower pace than this.  After all, my longer runs are still shorter or only as long as the half-marathon.  If I want to run the half-marathon at that pace, shouldn't I run the longer runs at that pace?  I guess the idea is that while I'm still running longer distances than I've ever run before, I should ease into it.  However, since I'm only running twice a week usually, I wonder if I should push that.  We'll see.  Since I'm still mostly running on the treadmill because of the cold weather, it's easy to set a pace.  I don't think I'm going to be nearly as successful pacing myself outside.  I suspect in the half-marathon I will start out fast and get slower, and hopefully just manage to finish in my goal time.

This morning I did P90X2 Chest + Back + Balance and X2 Ab Ripper.  This burned about 230 calories.  I did increase my numbers on most exercises.  One thing that has been nice is that coming back to this workout after a long break, my chest strength appears to have not suffered at all - in fact it may be better.  I'm banging out a lot of the push-up variations and balance moves.  The pull-ups are much harder since I really don't focus on them much otherwise.  It's cool to be able to do them, but I don't think the level of strength necessary for a pull-up is needed for much of my other activities.

My weight has been creeping up a bit this week for some reason.  It was even up a tad this morning after my run last night, and usually I lose a lot of water weight from a run.  I may be a little bloated.  I don't think I'm really making that much muscle.  I'll have to keep an eye on it, and I'll have to see what my waist measurements are on my Saturday weekly measuring.