Today’s plan was to run 1 slow mile as a warm up, 3 moderate-pace miles, and 1 final slow mile as a cool down. At a high level, my target pace looked something like this:
- Mile 1: 10:00
- Mile 2: 8:45
- Mile 3: 8:45
- Mile 4: 8:45
- Mile 5: 10:00
Those would be my ideal splits if I were running on a track under ideal conditions.
I didn’t run on a track, though conditions were pretty ideal. Cool and cloudy.
I started from the Ingles in Clarkesville, GA. From there, it’s an easy mile, mostly downhill, to the Clarkesville Greenway.
The Greenway is a footpath of crushed gravel that includes a loop that’s just short of a half-mile as well as a short spur that connects the greenway to downtown Clarkesville. That level half-mile loop footpath is an ideal location for timed miles.
After five laps around the loop I headed back to Ingles.
In the end, my splits looked like this:
- Mile 1: 9:38 — Slightly faster than my target pace of 10:00, but the first mile was mostly downhill, so this is about right.
- Mile 2: 8:57 — Slightly slower than my target pace of 8:45, so I picked up the pace.
- Mile 3: 8:36 — Slightly faster than my target pace of 8:45, but I was pretty happy with how things were going.
- Mile 4: 9:04 — Somewhat slower than my target pace of 8:45. However, I was also starting to head back to Ingles by this point, and this mile included both a significant hill right after leaving the greenway (see the elevation change at the 33:20 mark in the image above) and I also got stuck at a crosswalk which added a good 15 seconds. On balance, this represented an effort consistent with my target pace.
- Mile 5: 9:48 — Slightly faster than my target pace of 10:00, also mostly uphill (gentle rise). I’m fine with the effort level here.
All considered, I’m very pleased with how my run went this morning. My legs feel great, my knees feel great, I pushed myself modestly, but didn’t overdo it. It was a pretty perfect run.
Photo by lucas Favre on Unsplash