oh yeah! "race pace"

so the little training plan i put together for the discovery run called for a 3mi run at "race pace" today. why did i put a training plan together you might be asking yourself?

well... because the longest distance i've run in the past 8 weeks since being back at it has been 10mi.  so signing up for a 15K made me nervous, and i thought i should probably train a bit before tackling that distance.

monday's are my running rest day, but i still go to crossfit and then i sit around on my bum the rest of the day. lol!  today i felt pretty good and took off running.  out of the gate is about .25mi downhill so that certainly helps my first mile pace.

i felt pretty great and as my watch beeped for the first mile i was pretty shocked to see it was under an 8 min mile!  my brain wanted to tell my legs they were tired, but i lengthened my stride and focused on my breathing and form and just kept on running.

by the time the 2nd mile beeped at me i glanced at it and noticed it too was under an 8 min mile!  i kept pushing at it all the while realizing that while it felt hard it didn't feel impossibly so.  usually when i run a pace like this it is in a race setting (hence the "race pace" speed for this run) and for some reason i feel so much worse than i was feeling at that moment.  so i kept pushing and pushing.

no i don't know what i was doing with my face... 

i ran up the hill just after mile 2 and then steadied my pace on the flat after that.  i thought for sure mile 3 would be slower (it felt slower), but it proved to be the best mile yet.  i finished this short run feeling spent but really really good!

i guess there's something to be said for shorter distances.  hmmmm who'd a thunk it?

strava data here.