A Down Dowd Morning

Time: 52:46
Distance: 7.32 miles
Pace: 7:12
Map

Meagan and I drove over to the Dowd YMCA to meet up with some other Charlotte Running Club members. I don't particularly like running at 6:30 am and I especially don't like having to run faster than necessary at that hour. When I run solo or with Meagan, rarely is the first mile under 7:45. This morning it was 7:32 and it felt fast considering the hour. Here are the splits for the run:

7:28, 7:23, 7:33, 7:09, 7:10, 7:11, 6:47

Not much of a progression. This type of pacing I find problematic because there isn't any real variation in pace. The only reason the 6:47 is on there was due to me running the last half mile hard and purposely dropping everyone.

Here are my splits from Monday's run:

7:43, 7:06, 7:00, 6:46, 6:31, 6:25, 6:29, 5:51

The runs that feel the worst are the efforts out the door where the last mile isn't the fastest and when the pace doesn't naturally progress. By naturally, I mean that the effort stays the same but as your body wakes up the pace gets faster. The last mile doesn't feel any more difficult than the first, but it's significantly quicker.

That wasn't the case this morning and I question the quality of the run.