13 miles - Onward and Upward

This is probably my favorite route. We leave from Clear Lake Park, and run down Nasa Road 1, to the end. There's about a half mile down Todville road, and then over the bridge and on down the Kemah boardwalk. And back. It's about 12 miles total, but we added a few small loops here and there to make it 13.

The mistake was leaving at 6AM. It's too late already, and it was too hot by the end, and some of us were struggling. I felt okay, and finished with a couple decent miles, but I could tell, that if I had to go much further, the heat would have been a major problem.

Here are my stats. (you can tell where the walk breaks were)
1 : 10:01
2 : 9:43
3 : 10:35
4 : 9:38
5 : 9:35
6 : 11:08
7 : 13:19
8 : 10:06
9 : 9:09
10 : 11:42
11 : 11:06
12 : 9:35
13 : 9:12

Total : 13.02 miles in 2:15:04
Avg Pace : 10:23

Here's a summary of my recent progress, represented as the average pace for the final week at the given mileage level.

3 mile daily runs : average pace = 9:41
4 mile daily runs : average pace = 9:20
5 mile daily runs : average pace = 9:15

I'm surprised there's still a little improvement between the 4 milers and the 5 milers. I know I've improved a lot, and I feel a lot stronger, but with the increasing temps, I wouldn't have been surprised if it wasn't there.

Well, that wraps up the latest epoch in the training plan, and tomorrow begins the next level with 6 mile daily runs. I think I'll run 5 weeks at 6 miles per day, then 5 weeks of 7 milers. Beyond that I might increase some mileage of one or two of the midweek runs, but I don't think I'll go up to 8 milers everyday. Seven miles, with some long runs on the weekends, that will have to do.

Hmmm, I wonder what my pace will be after 5 weeks of 6 miles per day... Sounds like a good poll question.

Keith.