race pace

5/20/08
Tuesday

I decided to skip track and rest the ham so I ran a 4 mile x-c at 10k race pace. I started well at about 7:35. I was caught by a local runner at about .5 in my run and we talked for about another half mile. Funny he runs this route all the time and he lives right down the road but we have never met before.

The first mile went good and judging by how winded I was, I figured it was fast enough. Problem is that my ham started bothering a bit and I figured to cut the run short. After the left rim part of the loop (that felt very good and quite fast), I hit a bit of a wall when I ran the field path to the 2nd station and still felt winded on the gravel road.

By the time I hit the left rim hill, I felt a little more in control of my breathing but the ham still bothered. I headed back toward home at this time and cut the run short to 4 miles.

I did push a little kick at the end of 6:55 pace for the last .3 miles. Overall a little disapointed as I felt I should have been able to keep my origonal pace throughout the run and I faded pretty bad in mile 3 & 4.

I don't feel ready for the 25K....perhaps I should have done more long runs in my training? Anyway, I hope to meet up with Steve agin and perhaps we will find time to run together more. His pace is faster than mine so it would help me pick it up a bit.

Probably, I will only run something short and easy before the race Sunday......