November 21, 2009

Pacer Accuracy = 28%

7 miler this morning done in beautiful weather and perfect conditions. My pastry carbo-loading must have been right because I easily had the energy/endurance to complete 7 miles. This time our pacer did run 11:00 miles. Twice out of seven opportunities, making her accuracy about 28%. We "walked" through the water stop twice, if you could call coming to a near halt "walking".

Following my run I rewarded myself with a latte and pastry (of course) and felt pretty good looking back on my run. In the beginning I mentioned that although my pacer was supposed to be pacing us at 11:00 miles, I was kind of glad she was doing 11:30's. I wasnt sure that I could handle the distance at 11:00 at that point-in-time. I think I was feeling good because at the end of the 7 I was confident that I could have easily run all of the miles (not just two of em) at 11:00. Then I got ticked because my pacer robbed me of that opportunity ;)

I'm either going to send an email during the week or talk to one of the coaches before next Saturday's run about this situation. My goal isnt to run 13.1 at 11:30, its 11:00 (or faster). With a pacer pacing me too slow I'm not getting any closer to that goal.

Running Log
Time:1:18:48   Distance:6.88mi   Pace:11:27

Mile two and mile 5 or 6 ish would have included the "walking" water stop - not our slowest miles. Technically we would have run those a few seconds faster had we not been forced to walk for a bit. Our slowest mile (mile 4), had nothing to do with any sort of stop or delay, just a pacer who seems to be struggling with consistency.

Splits:
1 11:49
2 11:31
3 11:02
4 11:49
5 11:21
6 11:03
7 11:38

The good thing is, there were a few miles that were on pace and everything felt pretty good today. 7 miler down, just a few more long runs to go ;)

8 comments:

Jamie said...

Definitely talk to the coach that's not right!

Our Love On The Run said...

Great job! That's a bummer about ur pacer and u should talk to ur coach about it. Typically u r supposed to train for distance events at a pace about 1-2 minutes slower per mile than ur pace pace! That being said, I think u will have no problem running 11 min miles or even faster! BUT I agree with you, it would be nice for ur pacer to be accurate and give u that peace of mind of knowing that u can run at that pace! (But just remember that science is already telling u u CAN!) Nice job! :-)

Tim F said...

Great job on the run. Hopefully the pace will pick up. You generally run long runs slower than marathon pace, but if someone says they will pace at 11 min miles, they should.

Jess said...

Yeah, I would definitely talk to the organizers. You're paying for this!

Nice job getting the 7 done! Must've been a big confidence booster.

lifestudent said...

I think the fact that I run my short runs at 10:30 makes it seem like I should be doing 12 minute miles for the long run. Unfortunately, I am a wuss and hate to push myself running. If I am pushing myself, I would definitely be sub-10:00 for a 3/4 miler. I just dont like to push myself.

I'm pretty comforatable with the 11:30 pace actually, but my goal actually IS to push myself a bit and do 11:00. I know I can do it and was counting on a pacer to get me to do it. On my own it would never happen ;)

Lisa said...

Great job on the 7 miles. I agree with everyone else, definitely say something about the pacer... that's not right that you aren't getting what you paid for.

kilax said...

I am anxious to hear what the outcome is with the pacer. I wonder if the other groups are just as off?

RunToTheFinish said...

yeah I've decided that all pacers (not in races) run slightly faster than they are supposed to!