Start time: 11/4/07, 12:00pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 8 miles
Average pace: 9:02min/mile

The attack plan for next Sunday’s marathon is to do a 10/10/10 split; the first 10 miles at one minute above pace (10min/mile), the next 10 miles at training pace (9min/mile), the last 10k/6.2mi at 30 seconds (or more!) below pace (8:30min/mile or whatever I can muster). So for today’s 8-miler I thought I’d try and run the first four miles at the 10min/mile pace to try and get used to starting at that pace.

Well… Here are the splits for the first four miles (heading uphill no less): 9:10, 9:27, 9:33, 9:41. Essentially with each mile I’d look at the chrono, grimace, and try and slow down a little more. On the way back I gave up and sped up a bit (8:51, 8:40, 8:32, 8:22). So it was good to know that I need to work on starting out slow, especially since the beginning of the marathon will be adrenaline city.

Virtually no foot problems to report. Fingers crossed.