Running around the World: goal setting and pace time

I have been reading Run Less, Run Faster as a training guide for this whole crazy endeavor. For Christmas my sister purchased the digital version as a Kindle book that I can read on my computer and iTouch. I don't really have a mailing address so receiving gifts and mail doesn't happen very often in my world. Thank goodness for our digital solutions to everything! I am using the guide as a 16 week marathon training plan ending on May 17. My 16 weeks start the last week of December and I have been using my time now to gear up for that. They have you jump right into the training and at the end of my first week the distance run is a 13 miler. The training platform is based on running 3 hard, quality runs per week with 3 days of cardio cross training using different muscles to your running muscles. I think the cross training and more focused runs will be a better fit for all of my island hopping and sailing.

One of the prominent themes in the book is the goal setting. They break down the 5K, 10K, 1/2 and full marathon into tables of 10 second increments. The coaches keep insisting that in order to set an appropriate goal you can't focus on a nice round number for your mile time. I had never really thought about it that way before. I was definitely mentally aiming for "around 8 minute miles." Since I have been traveling a lot I have not been racing all that much and don't really have an idea of my 5k race time. The last race I ran was a cross country 1/2 in the Marin Headlands out in California. It was a very hilly course with beautiful views. Though I was well prepared for the race and had run each part of the course in the weeks leading up to it, I managed to come down with a nasty head cold and wheezed my way up and down the mountain. Before that I ran a fast 4 mile cross country race and paced about 7:20.

This morning with my Nike + strapped to my wrist I decided to try to focus on my mile pace. In the book, if you don't have a recent 5K race time, they say to use a track and do a specific work out. I'm sure there is a track around here, I just don't know where it is, and if you're allowed to run on it while school is in session. The training guide says to run 3X1600 with 1 minute rests and average the 3 miles into a 5K pace. My workout this morning was roughly the same. My intention was to run out for 3 miles and back for 3 miles with the first and last mile as warm up and cool down miles. I warmed up with a slow mile, stopped, stretched and ran 2 miles at what felt like a hard, maintainable pace. At 3 miles I stopped my watch and my self, stretched again and got ready to run back. I stopped and restarted my watch in order to get the 9'30 warm up mile out of the average pace calculation. The Nike website that my watch uploads to shows your mile splits so this was probably unnecessary but it made it easier for my own mental math. These were my mile times for all 6 miles.

9'32"/mi
8'34"/mi
8'49"/mi
8'19"/mi
8'19"/mi
9'04"/mi

Using 8'20" (I find it very hard not to round up to a nice neat number) the tables in the book suggest a 5K pace of 25'54, 1/2 marathon 1:49'15 and a full marathon time of 3:38'29.

I know I can run a half faster than 1:49 but I think this is a good base pace for now. I will rerun this workout in 2 weeks and see what my pace time is again before I start the really structured training.

Here are a few photos from California and my last 1/2 marathon;