I Have No Sense

...of pace.

Progression runs seem to be the flavor of the month, so I thought I'd give one a go. I really need to work on my speed, since I have none. I haven't done any speed work of any kind since...I don't really know when...so it's not a surprise. It's just depressing. I feel like my knees barely rise an inch with each stride. I can feel it on each run. Admittedly, I've been a little gun shy to get into speed work for fear that one of my fragile body parts would explode. But, really it's been just an excuse to not run hard-ish on non-race days. Time to suck it up if I want to get any better.

With all that in mind, I thought a 5 mile progression run would make sense, and I wanted to run loops on a measured mile. I figured this way I could focus on my pacing over consistent terrain. The best loop I could come up with was the field loops at Bowdoin. There's a trail in the woods that encircles the many athletic fields at Bowdoin, and I've run on them approximately 8,000 times. I was pretty certain the loop was close to a mile, but I took the Garmin just to be sure. With various changes to the fields and practices going on, the loop is closer to .9. So, I decided to add an additional piece around the new soccer field. So, after my .9 mile warmup, I was off.

In short, I'm an idiot. Well, not so much of an idiot, but I have no idea what a pace under 9 minutes feels like. They're all just an amalgamation of too fast to be comfortable. So, instead of the 8 minute mile I was hoping to start with, my first mile was 7:20. And, as I expected, it made the last two miles hurt a lot more than I would have liked. But, I survived, and I don't feel quite as slow as when I started. But, I still have a lot of work to do.

Mile 1: 7:20
Mile 2: 7:17
Mile 3: 7:02
Mile 4: 6:52
Mile 5: 6:30
Total time: 35:04