Really busted one out today (by slow fat man standards). Went out with the intention of running 8 miles with 6 at marathon pace (7:28/mile). This pace however is not really my marathon pace based on my performance at SGM 2007 with an average pace of 8:23/mile. So I guess I should call the 7:28/mile pace my BQ pace or my dream marathon pace. Whatever you call it, I was able to maintain it for the first 8 miles where my average pace ended at 7:26/mile including the so called warm-up mile at 7:50/mile. When I had finished the 8 miles I checked my watch and saw that I still had time to go another mile so I completed the 9th mile at a recovery pace and ended up with a 7:32 overall pace for the run. In looking back at my Excel running log I could only find one other 9 mile run and the total time was 1:19:46. I must have been having a bad day that day because I shattered my PR for the distance by nearly 12 minutes. Total time today was 1:07:52. I feel like I am slowly getting back to my pre-injury fitness and am hopefully ready to start building beyond that level over the next several weeks. I hope this time I am able to do so in a safe and injury free way.
Time: 7:32/mile | 