8.6 Miles Thursday Morning in Vancouver

I've been nursing a cold for the last couple of days, but it hasn't stopped me from running. That task was self-inflicted. I've just been feeling lethargic. However .... I was out the door this morning just after 5:30 a.m. and logged approximately 8.6 miles (8.58) on this route in 1:31:28 for a pace of 10:40 / mile.

The city - and the park - is still fairly quiet before 6 a.m. As I made my way clockwise around Stanley Park, there were more people that were coming the other way and crossing my path. Some running. Others walking. However, everyone seemed to enjoy a morning where the sun was out, the skies were pretty clear and it was in the mid-50's with a little bit of a breeze.

My goal this morning was just to maintain a nice, comfortable steady pace. I did. Although there was a point just past mile 5 where I quickened the pace a little bit, but not enough to cause me to slow down and walk. There were a couple of young ladies who had passed me roller blading. While I was smart enough to know that I would have had to have been the second coming of Sean Wade to catch them, I did improve my focus for the next half mile or so (until they went around the lighthouse near mile 6).

Nonetheless, if I expect to improve from two weeks ago, I'm going to have to push that pace on Sunday in the Scotiabank Vancouver International Half Marathon. (Yes, in case you are wondering, I did think about inquiring about pacing services for Sunday!)

A 10:40/mile pace equates to a 2:19:45, which is about what I did at the North Olympic Discovery Marathon two weeks ago. Let's face it, I'm better than that. (I hope I don't eat those words Sunday, but I know that I ran 2:12 in Austin on a tough course back in late January and then a 2:09:58 in Oregon in March.) Because of the route that I ran this morning, I know that when I come off the Burrard Bridge I'll have about 2 miles to run on Beach Avenue into Stanley Park. According to the elevation profile, it will be a nice gentle downhill from the Bridge (however, to me it is basically flat.)

Throughout this morning's run, I thought about something fellow HRBer Dave Smart shared with me via e-mail about his son, Benjamin, who is getting ready to enter the 7th grade and compete on the junior high cross country team. He said that Benjamin's coach, Juris Green isn't promoting run/walk (like Galloway does). Dave said Coach Green's instructions this summer to the incoming runners was this: "Simply run 2 miles every other day up to 4 times per week. The goal being not to walk!! We want all of our guys able to run the workouts. Walking only conditions the mind to stop when things get tough."

In other news, I have joined fellow Houston Running Bloggers James and Jaclyn Dykas in their "no soft drink" efforts. I have gone three (3) whole days without any soft drinks - Mountain Dews or even diet drinks - and have replaced them with water or Gatorade. I've been needing to do this for awhile and it isn't as bad as it seems.