7 Miles on the W&OD Trail

Today Handan and I are going to the Virginia Gold Cup horse races (her office is having an event), so I had to get up early to run my 7 'pace' miles.  I like these tempo runs.  It gives me an idea how running the real race might feel.  And even though I can tell I'm not close to being able to run the 26.2 miles at pace, I can also tell that I'm getting stronger and faster with each week that passes.  This encourages me.

Nutrition-wise I could have prepared better for today's run.  I didn't wake up early enough to have enough time to digest anything.  Of course I had a late dinner last night so that helped.  I munched a ClifBar at 7:15 and was out the door by 7:45.  I ran 7 miles in one hour almost exactly.  That's a bit faster than my marathon goal pace of 8:45, but I started too fast and slowed towards the end.  I have to work on that (I say this almost every week... someday it'll stick).